TIME BASED PRIORITY MODULUS FOR SECURITY CHALLENGES
Systems, methods, and computer readable media are disclosed for making dictionary based attacks difficult and/or time consuming for attackers. In one example embodiment, this can be accomplished by equipping a security service with software and/or circuitry operable to select security questions from different partitions of a question table.
1 . A computer readable storage medium including computer readable instructions for selecting a challenge question, the computer readable storage medium comprising:
instructions for selecting an initial partition in a question set in accordance with a parameter;
instructions for selecting a final partition in the question set in accordance with a randomizing variable and the initially selected partition; and
instructions for challenging a computing component with a question selected from the final partition.
2 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
instructions for receiving the question set from the computing component.
3 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
instructions for receiving the question set from a service provider.
4 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of available partitions are selected in accordance with an arbitrarily complex rule.
5 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
instructions for determining that a device has been modified; and
instructions for selecting a predetermined partition from the question set as the final partition.
6 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the parameter indicates valid time periods for the partitions in the plurality.
7 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the question set is a subset of a larger question set.
8 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the parameter uses information that identifies how long the question set has been available.
9 . A computing system operable to determine whether optical disks are authentic, the computing system comprising:
an optical disk drive operable to receive a disk;
a memory location operable to store a question set, the question set partitioned into at least a plurality of available groups;
a processor configured to select an initial question group from the plurality of available groups in accordance with a length of time the question set has been stored in memory;
the processor further configured to use randomizing criteria on the selected initial question group to select a final question group;
the processor further configured to select a question related to a property of the disk from the final group; and
the processor further configured to determine whether the disk includes the property.
10 . The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the question set was received from the disk.
11 . The computing system of claim 9 , further comprising:
the processor further configured to generate the plurality of available groups from the question set prior to selecting the initial question group in accordance with an arbitrarily complex rule.
12 . The computing system of claim 11 , wherein the arbitrarily complex rule is related to user input.
13 . The computing system of claim 11 , wherein the arbitrarily complex rule prevents a specific group of the plurality of groups from being available until a predetermined condition has occurred.
14 . The computing system of claim 11 , wherein the arbitrarily complex rule reduces the probability that a specific group of the plurality will be selected as an initial partition until a predetermined condition has occurred.
15 . The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to select an initial question group from the plurality of groups in accordance with a number of times the processor has selected questions.
16 . A method for challenging a disk, comprising:
receiving, by a device, a disk;
accessing a table of available question partitions of a question set;
using a first criteria to select an initial question partition from the available question partitions; wherein the criteria is related to a length of time the question set has been stored on the device;
using a second criteria and the initial question partition to select a final question partition from the available question partitions;
selecting a question from the final question partition; and
using the selected question to determine whether the disk is authentic.
17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
comparing a question set on the disk to the current question set; and
copying the question set from the disk when the question set on the disk is newer than the current question set.
18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
generating the table of available question partitions from a question set in accordance with an arbitrarily complex rule.
19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein determining the authenticity of the disk further comprises checking a physical property of the disk.
20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the question is selected in accordance with an arbitrarily complex rule associated with a question in the final question partition.