SPX: Global Authentication Using Public Key Certificates

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Tardo, Joseph J. | Alagappan, Kannan

Affiliations: Digital Equipment Corporation, LKG 1-2/A19, 550 King Street, Littletoll, MA. 01460-1289, USA

Abstract: SPX is a reference implementation of an open distributed authentication service architecture based on ISO Standard 9S94-8/CCITT X.S09 Directory Public Key Certificates and hierarchically organized Certification Authorities. SPX manages the end system state and provides the run-time environment that enables applications to take advantage of this certificate infrastructure to mutually authenticate on the basis of a global principal identity. SPX scales well in that it does not require on-line trusted components, and it permits management of global trust relationship policy in arbitrarily large distributed environments. Conceptual, component, and protocol descriptions are provided.

DOI: 10.3233/JCS-1992-13-406

Journal: Journal of Computer Security, vol. 1, no. 3-4, pp. 295-316, 1992