40 Years of Computing at Newcastle

Department Technical Report Series No. 459

Simple Authentication

C.R. Snow
H. Whitfield

University of Newcastle upon Tyne. 1994

Abstract

This paper describes a simple authentication protocol for use with terminal emulation programs running on small workstations, and communicating with a host computer over a (potentially) insecure network. The technique has the advantage that it requires no more network traffic than would be necessary using a standard user-id/password challenge, and also requires only a small amount of additional intelligence at the workstation. Some management issues are also discussed. The system has been implemented on two host systems and two workstation types.


Department Technical Report Series - 1994
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Technical Report Abstract No. 459, 27 June 1997