HP CIFS Client A.01.09 Administrator's Guide, August 2003

CIFS Authentication Using Kerberos
Introduction To Kerberos
Chapter 444
Introduction To Kerberos
Kerberos is a distributed authentication service that allows a process (a
client) running on behalf of a principal (a user) to prove its identity to a
verifier (an application server, or only a server) without sending data
across the network that might allow an attacker or the verifier to
subsequently impersonate the principal. Kerberos optionally provides
integrity and confidentiality for data sent between the client and server.
[Neuman, Ts’o: Kerberos: An Authentication Service for Computer
Networks]
Kerberos was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT).
Use of Kerberos in the CIFS environment provides significant security
improvements over the older NT LanManager (NTLM) protocol
traditionally used by CIFS Clients and Servers.