AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL: METHODS REVIEW

Authentication protocol as a part of security system has been growth rapidly since it was known that sending clear text password in the network is unsecured. Many protocols could be noted proposed to strengthen the authentication process. In 1985 an attempt to safeguard network services within Athena project resulting on the born of Kerberos 〔1〕〔8〕, one of the protocol that has a lot of attention from the research community. Several years later researchers were discovered some weaknesses carried by this protocol 〔2〕〔21〕. In 1992. EKE was introduced by Bellovin and Merrit. Since that time, many protocols introduced could be considered as its variant 〔5〕〔9〕〔13〕〔14〕. Some other protocols such as OKE〔5〕 and SRP〔18〕 although claimed different from EKE, they have the same basic mechanism in holding authentication process. Here, we explain the mechanism of those protocols, their strength and their weaknesses and shortcomings. Due to the limitations of the number of paper pages, only two types of authentication protocol can be explained here i.e EKE and SRP.