Authentication protocol

An authentication protocol is a type of computer communications protocol or cryptographic protocol specifically designed for transfer of authentication data between two entities. It allows to authenticate the connecting entity (e.g. Client connecting to a Server) as well as authenticate itself to the connecting entity (Server to a client) by declaring the type of information needed for authentication as well as syntax.[1] It is the most important layer of protection needed for secure communication within computer networks.

Purpose

With the increasing amount of trustworthy information being accessible over the network the need for keeping unauthorized persons from access to this data emerged. Stealing someone's identity is easy in the computing world - special verification methods had to be invented to find out whether the person/computer requesting data is really who he says that he is.[2] The task of the authentication protocol is to specify the exact series of steps needed for execution of the authentication. It has to comply with the main protocol principles:

  1. A Protocol has to involve two or more parties and everyone involved in the protocol must know the protocol in advance.
  2. All the included parties have to follow the protocol.
  3. A protocol has to be unambiguous - each step must be defined precisely.
  4. A protocol must be complete - must include a specified action for every possible situation.

An illustration of password-based authentication using simple authentication protocol:

Alice (an entity wishing to be verified) and Bob (an entity verifying Alice's identity) are both aware of the protocol they agreed on using. Bob has Alice's password stored in a database for comparison.

  1. Alice sends Bob her password in a packet complying with the protocol rules.
  2. Bob checks the received password against the one stored in his database. Then he sends a packet saying "Authentication successful" or "Authentication failed" based on the result.[3]

This is an example of a very basic authentication protocol vulnerable to many threats such as eavesdropping, replay attack, man-in-the-middle attacks, dictionary attacks or brute-force attacks. Most recently used authentication protocols are much more complicated in order to be more resilient against these attacks.[4]

Types

Authentication protocols developed for PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

Protocols used mainly by Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) servers to validate the identity of remote clients before granting them access to server data. Most of them are using a password as the cornerstone of the authentication. The password has to be shared between the communicating entities in advance.[5]

PAP 2-way handshake scheme

PAP - Password Authentication Protocol

Password Authentication Protocol is one of the oldest authentication protocols. Authentication is initialized by client/user by sending packet with credentials (username and password) at the beginning of the connection.[6] It is highly insecure because the credentials are being transmitted over the network in plain ASCII text thus it is vulnerable even to the most simple attacks like Eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle based attacks.

CHAP - Challenge-handshake authentication protocol

The authentication process in this protocol is always initialized by the server/host and can be performed anytime during the session, even repeatedly. Server sends a random string (usually 128B long). Client uses his password and the string received as parameters for MD5 hash function and then sends the result together with username in plain text. Server uses the username to apply the same function and compares the calculated and received hash. An authentication is successful or unsuccessful.

EAP - Extensible Authentication Protocol

EAP was originally developed for PPP(Point-to-Point Protocol) but today is widely used in IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11(WiFi) or IEEE 802.16 as a part of IEEE 802.1x authentication framework. The latest version is standardized in RFC 5247. The advantage of EAP is that it is only a general authentication framework for client-server authentication - the specific way of authentication is defined in its many versions called EAP-methods. More than 40 EAP-methods exist, the most common are:

AAA architecture protocols (Authentication, Authorization, Accounting)

Complex protocols used in larger networks for verifying the user (Authentication), controlling access to server data (Authorization) and monitoring network resources and information needed for billing of services (Accounting).

TACACS, XTACACS and TACACS+

The oldest AAA protocol using IP based authentication without any encryption (usernames and passwords were transported as plain text). Later version XTACACS (Extended TACACS) added authorization and accounting. Both of these protocols were later replaced by TACACS+. TACACS+ separates the AAA components thus they can be segregated and handled on separate servers (It can even use another protocol for e.g. Authorization). It uses TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) for transport and encrypts the whole packet. TACACS+ is Cisco proprietary.

RADIUS

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a full AAA protocol commonly used by ISP. Credentials are mostly username-password combination based, it uses Network access servers and UDP protocol for transport.[7]

DIAMETER

Diameter (protocol) evolved from RADIUS and involves many improvements such as usage of more reliable TCP or SCTP transport protocol and higher security thanks to TLS.[8]

Other

Kerberos authentication scheme

Kerberos (protocol)

Kerberos is a centralized network authentication system developed at MIT and available as a free implementation from MIT but also in many commercial products. It is the default authentication method in Windows 2000 and later. The authentication process itself is much more complicated than in the previous protocols - Kerberos uses symmetric key cryptography, requires a trusted third party and can use public-key cryptography during certain phases of authentication if need be.[9][10][11]

List of various other authentication protocols

References

  1. ↑ Duncan, Richard (23 October 2001). "An Overview of Different Authentication Methods and Protocols". www.sans.org. SANS Institute. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  2. ↑ Shinder, Deb (28 August 2001). "Understanding and selecting authentication methods". www.techrepublic.com. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  3. ↑ van Tilborg, Henk C.A. (2000). Fundamentals of Cryptology. Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0-7923-8675-2.
  4. ↑ Smith, Richard E. (1997). Internet Cryptography. Massachusetts: Addison Wesley Longman. pp. 1–27. ISBN 0-201-92480-3.
  5. ↑ Halevi, Shai. "Public-key cryptography and password protocols". citeseerx.ist.psu.edu. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Vanek, Tomas. "Autentizacní protokoly v telekomunikacních a datových sítích" (PDF). CVUT Prague. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "AAA protocols". www.cisco.com. CISCO. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  8. ↑ Liu, Jeffrey (24 January 2006). "Introduction to Diameter". www.ibm.com. IBM. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "Kerberos: The Network Authentication Protocol". web.mit.edu. MIT Kerberos. 10 September 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  10. ↑ Schneier, Bruce (1997). Applied Cryptography. New York: John Wiley & Sons,Inc. pp. 52–74. ISBN 0-471-12845-7.
  11. ↑ "Protocols of the Past". srp.stanford.edu. Stanford University. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
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