Designing Cognitive 3D Immersive CAPTCHA for Enhancing Security of Virtual Reality Systems

Designing Cognitive 3D Immersive CAPTCHA for Enhancing Security of Virtual Reality Systems | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Designing Cognitive 3D Immersive CAPTCHA for Enhancing Security of Virtual Reality Systems Jeongeun Shim, Dongyun Joo, Hyemin Shin, Gerard Jounghyun Kim, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6840630/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract With the advancement and maturing levels of related technologies, virtual reality (VR) is finding more uses in the industry, especially as a one-of-a-kind high-value generating system, and even for the general mass (e.g., entertainment and social activities). As such, there is an increasing concern for security for VR (as would be needed for any information system), which has seen only limited attention. One such area is the authentication procedures for VR users. One natural solution is to adopt the CAPTCHA as widely used in the 2D-based systems. However, recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have exposed critical vulnerabilities.Furthermore, conventional 2D CAPTCHA systems may be ill-suited for immersive 3D environments, often causing interaction inconvenience, disrupting user experience, and reducing immersion. On the other hand, there may be an opportunity for drastically improving the level of security by incorporating 3D spatial reasoning and interaction, which is generally regarded as more difficult for AI to crack, into the CAPTCHA authentication procedure in VR.In this paper, we propose ''Cognitive 3D Immersive CAPTCHA'' that leverages spatial interaction and user behaviors unique to virtual environments.As a foundation for this new approach, we set forth ten design principles tailored to CAPTCHA systems in VR. To explore and validate these principles, we design four prototype CAPTCHA systems as illustrative examples.The prototypes are evaluated to assess how well each satisfies the proposed principles, through a user study, expert review, and robustness analysis.The findings support the potential of these systems, while also identifying certain vulnerabilities and suggesting directions for improvement. Usable Security Cybersecurity Authentication CAPTCHA Security in VR User Experience Immersive Tool VR CAPTCHA Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files reduecedCAPTCHADEMO.mp4 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6840630","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":523851841,"identity":"2047a2b5-8ea6-4718-9e7b-0f706c8a886a","order_by":0,"name":"Jeongeun Shim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Korea University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jeongeun","middleName":"","lastName":"Shim","suffix":""},{"id":523851844,"identity":"31e2734a-3dd3-473d-932f-1b2a9dbdef16","order_by":1,"name":"Dongyun Joo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Korea 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