Authors: Shruti Dhage, Heena Barach, Sanakruti Jadhav, Vaishnavi Shivsharan, Shravani Pichake, Suchita Barkund
Abstract: Authentication is a critical component of digital systems, ensuring that only authorized users gain access to sensitive information and services. Traditional text-based password mechanisms, while widely used, suffer from vulnerabilities such as weak password selection, reuse across platforms, and susceptibility to brute-force and phishing attacks. To address these issues, this research presents the Graphical Password Authentication System, a web-based platform designed to enhance security by combining conventional password hashing with graphical pattern verification. The proposed system is developed using Java Server Pages (JSP), Servlets, MySQL database, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and deployed on the Apache Tomcat server. It includes features such as secure user registration, SHA-256 password hashing, graphical password setup and validation, OTP-based password recovery, and session management with duplicate login prevention. By introducing a dual-layer authentication mechanism, the system reduces risks of impersonation and unauthorized access while providing a user-friendly interface. The implementation demonstrates how graphical authentication can strengthen digital identity management and improve usability in academic, corporate, and community environments.
