> From: Ben Laurie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 

> This seems like a worthy goal, but one that is perhaps 
> orthogonal to other means of authenticating users. Certainly 
> I'd be violently opposed to requiring users to have smartcards.

Violently?

The authentication infrastructure should enable use of any form of 
authentication mechanism. SAML already supports this. It is clearly an 
achievable goal that does not place an undue burden on the design.

What we do not need to do is to support selection of selection mechanisms so 
the user gets a choice of GSSAPI, SAML, WS-*, SASL which in turn give a choice 
between every imaginable protocol.

We need one way to authenticate via the common authentication mechanisms: 
Passwords, Two Factor (OTP) Passwords, PKI signature, PKI encryption, 
Passthrough of biometric data capture.

All of these can be supported in a simple client - relying party - 
authentication service scheme where the client never talks to the auth server 
directly. 

I do not think that we need to provide direct support multiple round trip 
protocols such as some of the more complex zero knowledge schemes. In those 
cases the simplest scheme is for the client to talk to the authentication 
service directly. 

It is in any case desirable to have direct contact between the user and the 
auth-N service in the case of password schemes to prevent certain forms of MIM 
attack.


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