A Hybrid Graphical-Textual Password Scheme with Hash Encoding

In light of the deficiencies of the traditional textual character passwords, such as difficult memory and low security, and the disadvantages of the existing graphical passwords, such as inconvenient input and difficult storage of the images, a hybrid graphical password scheme combining images and textual characters was designed in this study. This scheme takes images as the password input, and is compatible with the traditional way of taking textual characters as the password input. The password scheme classifies the images used for the password input to make them suitable for different types of users and enhance the users' memory and recall of passwords. In the process of graphical password submission, the submitted image is encoded by the Hash coding method into textual characters so as to be compatible with the existing textual password system. The comparative analysis indicates that the scheme is characterized by good memorability and recallability, excellent security, and very good usability, shoulder-surfing resistance and compatibility.