Attacking biometric hashing via optimization techniques

The thesis deals with biometric hashing, which is a two-factor authentication method that combines a secret key with biometric data in order to create a secure biomeric template for authentication purposes. The thesis first discusses the theoretical aspects of this issue and then focuses on the implementation of this concept. The paper also describes attacks on biometric hashing systems that are subsequently implemented. Practically performed attacks are based on the assumption that the attacker knows the user’s secret key and biohashes stored in the database. Two methods of attacks are applied. These methods are able to reconstruct the biometric data of an authorized user and related biohashes. Methods are based on 1-bit compressive sensing approach. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the effectivity of the attacks on biometric hashing systems and to make a conclusion about the security of such systems