| IT |
A method of user authentication that is carried out through use of the Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (When a user tries to log into the server using CHAP, the server sends the user a "challenge," which is a random value. The user enters a password, which is used as an encryption key to encrypt the "challenge" and return it to the server. The server is aware of the password. It, therefore, encrypts the "challenge" value and compares it with the value received from the user. If the values match, the user is authenticated. The challenge/response activity continues throughout the session and this protects the session from password sniffing attacks. In addition, CHAP is not vulnerable to "man-in-the-middle" attacks because the challenge value is a random value that changes on each access attempt; CHAP) |
