Double SSO – A Prudent and Lightweight SSO Scheme

Abstract: User authentication means the verification of a user identity in a computer system. In a typicalscenario, users in an organization have access to several independent services, each of themrequires separate credentials (e.g., user name and password) for user authentication. Userswaste a considerable amount of time trying to recall their different credentials. The helpdeskworkload caused by lost or forgotten credentials is also significant. Single Sign-On (SSO) wasshown to be a successful authentication mechanism in networking environments where a largenumber of credentials would otherwise be required. SSO means that users authenticate onlyonce and are granted access to the services they subsequently use without the need to reauthenticate.Obviously, SSO would increase users' productivity and satisfaction and reducehelpdesk calls. It also improves the usability of the system utilizing it. As a consequence, SSOhas become an alluring feature called for by IT managers of organizations of various sizes.
In this thesis, we study the SSO technology from two analogous perspectives. In the firstperspective, we view the technology from an industrial angle and introduce the knowledgenecessary for an organization to determine its strategic SSO solution. We accomplish this bydescribing the taxonomies of SSO solutions and their qualities, in addition to presenting thearchitectures and operations of example SSO solutions in use today. In the secondperspective, we move to (what we suppose) the next level and present our own SSO solution;namely Double SSO. Double SSO is a new SSO scheme designed to be lightweight, efficientand safe to implement in any wired or wireless networking infrastructure where SSO isneeded, especially if the devices used in that infrastructure are resource constrained. Thisscheme appeals for a number of reasons. Of those reasons we mention; the minimum numberof computations required and the minimum number of keys needed to accomplish the SSOexperience, the ability to use digital identities of any type and to function in ubiquitous smartenvironments, and the immunity against known attacks.