ISSN(Online): 2320-9801 ISSN (Print): 2320-9798 International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering (An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 4, I ssue 8, August 2016 Copyright to IJIRCCE DOI: 10.15680/IJIRCCE.2016. 0408138 15514 A New Hybrid Graphical User Authentication Technique based on Drag and Drop Method Salim Istyaq, Khalid Saifullah Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Engineering, EES, University Polytechnic, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, A.M.U. Aligarh, India Scholar, Dept. of Computer Engineering, EES, University Polytechnic, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, A.M.U. Aligarh, India ABSTRACT: Nowadays, information security is an important field and the topic of concern in this field is user authentication. As we all use text password for the authentication from past years. In spite, word passwords are much easier to guess and hacked by different attacks such as dictionary, social engineering, shoulder surfing attacks etc. To overcome the drawbacks of the text passwords, a new technique of graphical password was introduced. Simply using the graphical password can also have some drawbacks. So, in this paper we have used both text and graphical techniques based on drag and drop method is called as hybrid authentication technique. This concept makes the authentication system more secure and resistant to the attacks, as guessing or hacking both passwords is not an easier task. This concept of merging text and graphical passwords in one technique makes it more scalable, flexible and strong technique for authentication process. KEYWORDS: Graphical password; Authentication; Hybrid authentication; Text password; Hybrid authentication technique based on drag and drop (HATDD). I. INTRODUCTION To increase the level of authentication security there is a need of technique which overcomes the drawbacks of both text and graphical passwords [1]. As we see in computers and other devices the authentication method used is simply by submitting the usernames and their passwords which are more vulnerable to various attacks. But these text passwords are easier to guess if they are short and hard to remember if they are long. So to overcome their vulnerabilities of text passwords, graphical password scheme [3] have been introduced. The main concept of graphical passwords is to use images to replace text, since images and graphics are easier to remember than text. As graphical password schemes are considered as alternative to traditional text passwords, they also have some drawbacks. For example; some of the vulnerabilities are shoulder surfing, complexity and inputting the password several times which makes it hectic for the user. II. RELATED WORK A. TEXT PASSWORD To gain access to a resource and for user authentication a word or string of characters is used. This string of characters is known as password. If passwords are kept secret then it will be secured. Passwords can be hacked by looking over the shoulder of the person as he enters the password. This technique is known as shoulder surfing. Attacker use this technique for stealing the password by physically viewing the password as it is typed by the user. If the password strength is not strong then it can be easily cracked. Small passwords can be cracked easily. B. GRAPHICAL PASSWORD Graphical password is an alternative to text passwords in which users choose images to authenticate themselves rather than typing words [2]. It is an authentication system in which users have to select some images in a specific order. The images are given on a graphical user interface. This approach is known as graphical user authentication. Text passwords have demerits that it can be stolen, hacked and forgotten. To secure all our application strong authentication