A Study on the Next Generation of Digital Travel Credentials

Digital travel credential (DTC) is the future passport. The goal of DTCs is to bound a digital passport to a smartphone device for a booklet-free travel experience. However, new security and privacy issues and challenges arise. The main challenges to address are preventing unauthorized cloning of a holder's DTC and ensuring impostors cannot misuse a holder's credentials at the airport. This study researches how to overcome the challenges of cloning and misuse of credentials, by proposing an iris biometric-based solution. We design three protocols: Enrolment of the DTC, active authentication at the airport, and switching smartphone devices (legitimate cloning of the DTC). The protocols mainly focus on preventing unauthorized cloning and misuse of the DTC by impostors using iris biometrics to obtain a private-public key pair. This key pair is used to prove the legitimate holder's physical presence, ensuring that the protocols designed continue to prevent cloning and misuse.