13. Password Authentication
Kyle: What’s the password?Gregory: Uh, I don’t know.Kyle: Guess!Gregory: Uh, bacon.Kyle: Okay.
—SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT
This chapter presents a discussion of the most popular form of authentication—the password. Some security experts argue that passwords do not make for good security. We agree that’s usually the case, but passwords can be a highly effective supplement to other kinds of authentication. In practice, the question is moot. Disagreement by all the security experts in the world cannot kill the password. The fact of the matter is that passwords are likely to be used for many years to come, because they seem very simple.
In Chapter 3 we discussed different kinds of authentication technologies, ...
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