A Catalog of User Authentication Patterns

Abstract

Security patterns are intended to support the design and development of secure software systems. However, although established catalogs of security patterns exist, their practical application remains limited. In particular, despite these catalogs, concrete patterns for common security controls such as user authentication (authentication for short) are lacking. This paper aims to make an initial contribution toward closing this gap, as exemplified by authentication. It presents a novel authentication pattern catalog, comprising 14 user authentication patterns. To support the catalog's practical application, it classifies patterns by the well-known concept of authentication factors and by the usual role each pattern fulfills in practice. By cataloging common authentication techniques through authentication patterns, we aim to make an important contribution to supporting software engineers and architects in designing and developing secure software systems.