How Does Kerberos Work?

This simple question has two variants of the answer. The first is user- and administrator-oriented, presenting the practical aspects of how Kerberos works. The second is more scientific, introducing the cryptography and system design that work behind the scenes. We will stick with the first one in this case. If you want an in-depth and detailed description of Kerberos, see its web site at MIT (http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/). The most logical explanation of how Kerberos 5 works is to describe the process of authentication using Kerberos step by step. However, before doing that, let’s define the main Kerberos concepts and terms necessary for this step-by-step explanation. These concepts include Kerberos principals, realms, ...

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