Entity authentication is the process by which one entity (the verifier) is assured of the identity of a second entity (the claimant) that is participating in a protocol (see identity verification protocol). This assurance is usually obtained by requiring the claimant to provide corroborating evidence of the claimed identity to the verifier. The claimed identity can either be presented to the verifier as part of the protocol or can be presumed by context.
The term identification is sometimes used as a synonym for entity authentication, however it is also sometimes used to simply refer to the process of claiming or stating an identity without providing the corroborating evidence required for entity authentication. Care must be taken to ensure, when using this term, that the correct interpretation is used.
The corroborating evidence required in order to obtain entity authentication is sometimes also called credentials or an authentication codeand is usually calculated using one of the...
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References
ISO/IEC 9798-1 (1997). Information technology—security techniques—entity authentication.
ANSI X9.26 (1991). American National Standard—financial institution sign-on authentication for wholesale financial transactions, ASC X9 Secretariat—American Bankers Association.
ISO 11131 (1992). Banking—financial institution sign-on authentication.
FIPS 196 (1997). Entity Authentication using Public Key Cryptography, Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 196. U.S. Department of Commerce/NIST, National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA.
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© 2005 International Federation for Information Processing
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Zuccherato, R. (2005). Entity Authentication. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23483-7_144
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