Cancelable biometric based key generation for symmetric cryptography

Most of the existing algorithms of key generation for symmetric cryptographic use a private key having size of 128, 192 or 256 bits. These long keys are difficult to remember, hence, stored in smart card; tamper-resistant token, etc. or password based authentication method is used to control the access of cryptographic key. But these user selected passwords sometimes lost or guessed by dictionary attacks. Moreover, in symmetric cryptography, sender and receiver must have the same secret key and the key must be secured which leads to another threat of security. As a substitute to this, generation of cryptographic key using the biometric traits of both sender and receiver during the sessions of communication can be a possible solution of the above discussed key management problem. But the problem with biometrics is that once it gets compromised it cannot be reused. As a proficient solution for cancelling and reissuing biometric template cancelable biometrics has been proposed. The present work proposed to generate 128 bit symmetric key from cancelable fingerprint templates of both communicating parties. The current approach confirms the privacy of fingerprints by one way transformation of original template into cancelable one as well as resolves the difficulty of key storage and key distribution as the key is not sent to the recipient and is also not saved anywhere.