The authentication of users in distributed systems poses special problems because users lack the ability to encrypt and decrypt. The same problems arise when users wish to delegate some of their authority to nodes, after mutual authentication. In most systems today, the user is forced to trust the node he wants to use.
Authentication is relatively straightforward with a sufficiently powerful smart-card.
However, for practical reasons, protocols that place few demands on smart-cards should be considered. Back to the SRC Research Reports main page .