A Hybrid Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC): for Authenticating and Validating Biometrics Information

The old ink and paper method of a biometric system is at risk to a variety of attacks. These attacks are intended to either avoid the security afforded by the system or to put off the normal functioning of the system. The old ink and paper method which is grossly susceptible to wear and tear makes it very vulnerable. Proper use of cryptography hash functions greatly reduces the risks in automated biometric systems as hackers have to find both secret key and template. It is evidenced that still fraud goes on to some extent. Here in this paper a new idea is presented to make system more secure by use of encryption and its HMAC code. Here the secret key (which is in the form of pixel intensities) will be merged in the picture itself while encoding and its unique corresponding HMAC code generated, and at decoding end only the authentic user will be allowed to decode and digitally encrypted hashed image is stored in the database for future references and usages.