scope:

This part of ISO/IEC 9594: - specifies the form of authentication held by the Directory; - describes how authentication information may be obtained from the Directory; - states the assumption made about how authentication information is formed and placed in the Directory; - defines three ways in which applications may use this authentication information to perform authentication and describes how other security services may be supported by authentication. This part of ISO/IEC 9594 describes two levels of authentication: simple authentication, using a password as a verification of claimed identity: and strong authentication, involving credentials formed using cryptographic techniques. While simple authentication offers some limited protection against unauthorized access, only strong authentication should be used as the basis for providing secure services. It is not intended to establish this as a general framework for authentication, but it can be of general use for applications which consider these techniques adequate.