api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: yaml
dataset:
  id: 2324
  slug: authentication-factors
  title: Authentication Factors
  description: Categories of authentication evidence.
  summary: "The categories of evidence used to prove identity: something you know, have and are, plus the contextual signals of location, time and behavior that risk-based systems add. Each row lists typical examples so a design can say which factors it actually combines."
  use_when:
    - You are designing or auditing multi-factor authentication and need to confirm the factors are genuinely different.
    - You are explaining why two passwords are not two factors.
  caveats:
    - Two items from the same category do not make multi-factor authentication.
    - Location, time and behavior are usually risk signals that adjust a decision, not standalone factors.
  related:
    - cryptography-basics
    - common-vulnerabilities-owasp
    - http-authentication-methods
  entry_count: 6
  fields:
    - section: data
      field: factor
      type: string
      example: Knowledge
    - section: data
      field: examples
      type: string
      example: Passwords, PINs, security questions
  category: Cybersecurity
  category_slug: cybersecurity
  tags: security,authentication,mfa
  view_count: 46
  created_at: 1792832553
  updated_at: 1792832553
data:
  - factor: Knowledge
    examples: Passwords, PINs, security questions
  - factor: Possession
    examples: Hardware tokens, smartphones, smart cards
  - factor: Inherence
    examples: Fingerprints, facial recognition, voice prints
  - factor: Location
    examples: IP address, GPS coordinates
  - factor: Time
    examples: Time-based one-time passwords, access windows
  - factor: Behavior
    examples: Typing rhythm, mouse movement, gait, device-usage patterns (used as continuous, risk-based signals)