A Study of User-Friendly Hash Comparison Schemes

Several security protocols require a human to compare two hash values to ensure successful completion. When the hash values are represented as long sequences of numbers, humans may make a mistake or require significant time and patience to accurately compare the hash values. To improve usability during comparison, a number of researchers have proposed various hash representations that use words, sentences, or images rather than numbers. This is the first work to perform a comparative study of these hash comparison schemes to determine which scheme allows the fastest and most accurate comparison. To evaluate the schemes, we performed an online user study with more than 400 participants. Our findings indicate that only a small number of schemes allow quick and accurate comparison across a wide range of subjects from varying backgrounds.