Enhancing SESAMEV4 with smart cards

Abstract

SESAMEV4 is a security architecture that supports role based access control with single sign-on facilities for heterogenous distributed network environments. Several vulnerabilities are identified in SESAMEV4’s user authentication process. This paper proposes four options for enhancing this user authentication process by integrating smart cards into SESAMEV4. The proposals are shown to successfully increase the level of security of SESAMEV4 and will be shown to correctly operate with existing SESAMEV4 applications and servers, with no modifications required to the applications or servers.