Kerberos: an authentication service for computer networks

Abstract

When using authentication based on cryptography, an attacker listening to the network gains no information that would enable it to falsely claim another's identity. Kerberos is the most commonly used example of this type of authentication technology. The authors concentrate on authentication for real-time, interactive services that are offered on computer networks. They use the term real-time loosely to mean that a client process is waiting for a response to a query or command so that it can display the results to the user, or otherwise continue performing its intended function. This class of services includes remote login, file system reads and writes, and information retrieval for applications like Mosaic.