A strong, secure network authentication protocol is crucial to all modern computing infrastructures. Whether you are sending login information over the Internet, a corporate intranet, or wireless LAN, opportunities for malicious users to gain access to protected data must be carefully considered. To address this risk, Mac OS X implements Kerberos, an open-source, single sign-on authentication protocol developed and maintained at MIT.

This article discusses Kerberos in Mac OS X and how the protocol is used for secure Single Sign On authentication. The importance of this secure, standards-based methodology will be discussed from both a system administrator and developer perspective.

At Apple.

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