To verify the identity of another party in a communication. In Scishare, authentication is provided through TSL communication.
To give access to a resource to an authenticated user based on policy protecting the resource.
Abbreviation for certificate authority.
A document that has been digitally
signed by a trusted party. Scishare uses Glossary.htm - x509 based certificate.
certification authority (AKA certificate authority)
An entity trusted to "vouch" for the identity of a user. In a public key infrastructure, a certificate authority signs an identity certificate for the user.
Abbreviation: CA.
See also user, identity certificate.
Abbreviation for common name. A common name is a person's given name i.e John Smith.
Abbreviation for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
A protocol "designed to provide access to the X.500 Directory while not incurring the resource requirements of the Directory Access Protocol" [RFC 2559].
To translate: the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is used to communicate with the ISO/OSI directory service. Broadly defined, a directory is a "special purpose [database], usually containing typed information. " An example of an Internet-based directory is the Domain Name Service (DNS). A directory accessed via LDAP, however, can contain any kind of information, unlike the special-purpose DNS directory. We refer to a directory accessible via LDAP as an LDAP server.
An LDAP server is used as a Registration Agent (RA) by the Netscape CA. All valid certificates are entered into an associated LDAP server, and are removed when then are revoked. Thus one can check if a certificate has been revoked by looking it up in the CA's LDAP server. If it is not found, it is assumed to have been revoked.
Network Address Translation
.P12 file
The file extension
assigned to all Certificates exported
from Netscape Communicator using the PKCS #12
standard.
A standard that specifies a portable format for storing or transporting a user's private keys and Certificates.
A mathematical key (kept secret by the holder) used to create digital signatures and depending upon the algorithm, to decrypt messages or files encrypted (for confidentiality) with the corresponding public key.
A network protocol that allows the two ends of a unicast communication link to authenticate one another and to establish an encrypted connection.
Scishare and most other SSL-enabled applications use SSL version 3.
Abbreviation: SSL.
See also Transport Layer Security protocol.
Abbreviation for the Secure Sockets Layer protocol.
TLS
Abbreviation for the Transport Layer Security protocol.
Transport Layer Security protocol.
The IETF's adaptation of SSL, version 3. The IETF's
Transport Layer
Security working group is in charge of the standardization process.
Abbreviation: TLS.
The ISO authentication framework.
The identifiable entity to which a certificate applies. In the Scishare system, a user is usually a human being and is identified by User Identity.