# Securing Password Authentication for Web-based Applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.06257 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.06257/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Nov 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [LoginTrap: Uncovering Task-Agnostic Phishing-Style Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks against LLM-based Web Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.04741/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The use of passwords and the need to protect passwords are not going away. The majority of websites that require authentication continue to support password authentication. Even high-security applications such as Internet Banking portals, which deploy 2-factor authentication, rely on password authentication as one of the authentication factors. However phishing attacks continue to plague password-based authentication despite aggressive efforts in detection and takedown as well as comprehensive user awareness and training programs. There is currently no foolproof mechanism even for security-conscious websites to prevent users from being directed to fraudulent websites and having their passwords phished. In this paper, we apply a threat analysis on the web password login process, and uncover a design vulnerability in the HTML<inputtype="password"> field. This vulnerability can be exploited for phishing attacks as the web authentication process is not end-to-end secured from each input password field to the web server. We identify four properties that encapsulate the requirements to stop web-based password phishing, and propose a secure protocol to be used with a new credential field that complies with the four properties. We further analyze the proposed protocol through an abuse-case evaluation, discuss various deployment issues, and also perform a test implementation to understand its data and execution overheads