Mutual Authentication Protocol

Mutual authentication allows computers to verify each other.

Mutual authentication is the process by which the originating terminal and the receiving terminal verify that each is who they say they are before starting an electronic communication cycle. This process can occur over the public Internet or over a private intranet.

Kerberos

Kerberos is the name of the most widely used mutual authentication protocol. It was developed at MIT in the 1980s. The first three versions were only used on the MIT intranet. The most recent version, Kerberos 5 Release 1.9, was issued in December of 2010. The Kerberos protocol includes the use of a master server, called a "trusted third party," to verify clients. The Kerberos master server is located at MIT.

Kerberos Consortium

In 2007, MIT established the Kerberos Consortium to promote continued development of the protocol. Consortium members include vendors such as Microsoft, Google, Apple Inc., Sun Microsystems and Centrify Corporation and academic institutions such as MIT, Stanford and Sweden's KTH-Royal Institute of Technology. The Consortium makes Kerberos available without charge, but under a copyright agreement.

Users

All Windows operating systems since Windows 2000 use the Kerberos protocol -- but not the MIT software -- for mutual authentication. UNIX and other open operating systems using the Kerberos protocol include Apple's Mac OS X, Red Hat's Linux 4, FreeBSD, HP's OpenVMS, IBM's AIX and Sun Microsystem's Solaris.

References

• Internet Engineering Task Force: The Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5)
• MIT: Kerberos 5 Release 1.9