Next: Why Kerberos is needed. Up: An Inessential Guide to Previous: Useful Lockers Contents
Kerberos; also spelled Cerberus. "n. The watch dog of
Hades, whose duty it was to guard the entrance-against whom or what
does not clearly appear;...is known to have had three heads..."
-Ambrose Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary
Kerberos is the system designed by MIT to provide security on the Athena network. This document will not provide you with a complete description of the mechanisms and the math used by Kerberos; it will explain the necessity for Kerberos, and will quickly summarize what Kerberos does. For more information, you can look at the Kerberos section of the Athena Technical Plan, the PostScript file /mit/kerberos/doc/techplan/techplan.PS.