I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-http-mda-00.txt

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Working Group of the IETF.                                                 

       Title     : Mediated Digest Authentication                          
       Author(s) : D. Raggett
       Filename  : draft-ietf-http-mda-00.txt
       Pages     : 12
       Date      : 04/10/1995

As the number of commercial services on the world wide web increases 
rapidly, the need arises for a means for these services to authenticate 
clients, and vice versa. A simple scheme can be based on keyed hash 
functions with a shared secret key for each client/server pair. Key 
management becomes impractical for both clients and servers when the number
of participants is scaled up. This document describes a efficient scheme 
for using mutually trusted third parties to mediate authentication, as a 
direct extension of the digest access authentication scheme. The scheme is 
based upon public domain algorithms, and unlike encryption software, isn't 
subject to export restrictions. The main benefits to users include: 
avoiding having to enter separate user names and passwords for each 
service, and an ability to authenticate servers. It is proposed that the 
mediated digest authentication scheme be included in the proposed 
HTTP/1.1 specification.                                                             

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