Identification and authentication

 

Identification is being able to identify uniquely a user of a system or an application that is running in the system. Authentication is being able to prove that a user or application is genuinely who that person or what that application claims to be.

For example, consider a user who logs on to a system by entering a user ID and password. The system uses the user ID to identify the user and, at the time of logon, authenticates the user by checking that the supplied password is correct.

Here are some examples of the identification and authentication service in a WebSphere MQ environment:

• Every message can contain message context information. This information is held in the message descriptor and can be generated by the queue manager when a message is put on a queue by an application. Alternatively, the application can supply the information if the user ID associated with the application is authorized to do so.

  The context information in a message allows the receiving application to find out about the originator of the message. It contains, for example, the name of the application that put the message and the user ID associated with the application.

• When a message channel starts, it is possible for the message channel agent (MCA) at each end of the channel to authenticate its partner. This is known as mutual authentication. For the sending MCA, this provides assurance that the partner it is about to send messages to is genuine. And, for the receiving MCA, there is a similar assurance that it is about to receive messages from a genuine partner.

 

Parent topic:

Security services

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