About Kerberos
Kerberos, originally developed at MIT under
its Project Athena, provides secure authentication in networked environments, without the threat of passwords being viewed
while traveling across the network. Additionally, the protocol includes data integrity to ensure messages are not tampered
with on the network and message privacy (encryption) to ensure messages are not visible to eavesdroppers on the network. The
protocol is appropriately named after the three-headed dog that, in Greek mythology, guarded the entrance to Hades (the
Underworld). Kerberos is designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key
cryptography. Kerberos can also be complemented with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology by utilizing a standard
called PKINIT
for public key / X.509 v3 certificate based authentication in a Kerberos environment.
A reference implementation of the protocol is available from
MIT as Open Source. The Kerberos protocol has also been
implemented in some commercially available products, such as those provided by
CyberSafe, and Microsoft which
has implemented the Kerberos protocol in its Windows 2000 and XP operating systems. Some UNIX operating system vendors have
also included support for Kerberos in their operating systems and an increasing number of
application vendors are recognizing
the value that this protocol can have to improve the authentication and privacy capabilities in their products.
Used to secure particularly vulnerable network communications like ftp, telnet and other widely used
Internet protocols, which normally transmit user ID's and passwords in clear text, Kerberos provides the "plumbing" for
common authentication services. Its scalability means that it is ideal for large networks such as those used by government,
telecommunications and major financial institutions. In the CyberSafe pages you can read more about the
range of applications, operating
systems and utilities that utilize the Kerberos protocol.
The tutorials can be used as references,
which help explain how the Kerberos protocol works. We hope you find them useful.
Courtesy of Cybersafe Ltd.
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