Patent ID: 8918848

Claim:
A method of authenticating a client using a third party authentication server, the method being performed by an intermediate server configured to communicate with the client and the third party authentication server, the method comprising: requesting, by a plug-in executing on the intermediate server and associated with a third party authentication server, a list of supported credential types of said third party authentication server, wherein the list of supported credential types is selected from the group comprising: a password, a single sign-on (SSO) authentication token, a PIN, and a smart card credential; receiving, from the plug-in, said list of supported credential types of the third party authentication server; sending, to the client, an identification of the supported credential types of the third party authentication server in the list; receiving, from the client, credential information and a selected credential type from the list of supported credential types; sending the credential information and the selected credential type to the plug-in; determining, by the plug-in, if the selected credential type is supported by the third party authentication server, and transmitting the credential information received from the client to the third party authentication server for authenticating the client, in response to determining the selected credential type is supported by the third party authentication server; wherein the plug-in is selected from a plurality of plug-ins, and each of the plurality of plug-ins is associated with a different third party authentication server.