Knowledge-based Authentication

Authenticates a US subject by asking questions drawn from their identity records, one question at a time, and returns PASSED, FAILED or NOT_FOUND. Needs the subject’s name and full US address; date of birth improves the match. This page documents the Knowledge-based Authentication module, including its variants, capabilities, and the result values it returns.

Knowledge-based Authentication: Knowledge-based Authentication

Performs Knowledge-Based Authentication

Capabilities

The module returns the following capabilities.

Authentication result

Result of the KBA quiz

Code	Label	Description
`PASSED`	Passed	Questions answered correctly
`FAILED`	Failed	Questions answered incorrectly
`NOT_FOUND`	Not Found	No match found for the provided identity

Number of rounds

How many rounds of questions were asked

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–2
Default	`0`

Default outcomes

The following default outcomes are available for evaluation and routing in the Journey builder.

Outcome	Condition	Description
`Pass`	Authentication Result is `PASSED`	—
`Not Found`	Authentication Result is `NOT_FOUND`	—
`Fail`	Default, when no conditions matched	—
`Error`	An error occurs during processing	—

Input payload

The following is a sample payload used to submit data to the Knowledge-based Authentication module for processing.

JSON

{
  "context": {
    "subject": {
      "identity": {
        "firstName": "JANE",
        "lastNames": [
          "DOE"
        ],
        "dateOfBirth": "1959-01-01",
        "currentAddress": {
          "lines": [
            "1 SAMPLE STREET"
          ],
          "locality": "SAMPLETOWN",
          "administrativeArea": "MN",
          "postalCode": "12345",
          "country": "US"
        }
      },
      "kba": {
        "questions": [],
        "answers": [
          {
            "id": 1,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 2,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 3,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 4,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 5,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 6,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 7,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 8,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 9,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": 10,
            "choices": [
              "E"
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Field	Required	Description
`FullName/firstName`	Yes	The subject’s first name.
`FullName/lastNames`	Yes	The subject’s last name or names.
`CurrentAddress/country`	Yes	The country of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/postalCode`	Yes	The postal or ZIP code of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/lines`	No	The full address as one or more free-form lines, used when structured address components aren’t available.
`CurrentAddress/building`	No	The building name or number of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/subBuilding`	No	The flat, unit, or other sub-building of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/thoroughfare`	No	The street or thoroughfare of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/locality`	No	The town or city of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/administrativeArea`	No	The state, province, or county of the current address.
`CurrentAddress/premise`	No	The premise name or number of the current address.
`SSN`	No	The subject’s Social Security Number.
`DateOfBirth`	No	The subject’s date of birth.
`Kba/answer1`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 1.
`Kba/answer2`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 2.
`Kba/answer3`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 3.
`Kba/answer4`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 4.
`Kba/answer5`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 5.
`Kba/answer6`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 6.
`Kba/answer7`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 7.
`Kba/answer8`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 8.
`Kba/answer9`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 9.
`Kba/answer10`	No	The subject’s answer to quiz question 10.

Sample response

The following is a sample response returned by the module.

JSON

{
  "response": {
    "advice": {
      "authenticationResult": "NOT_FOUND",
      "questionSetsUsed": 0
    },
    "outcome": "Not Found"
  }
}

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Resources

Knowledge-based Authentication