In this approach, the server uses a public key authentication instead of a traditional password-based authentication.
The server has three users and an associated public key for each of them:
- User zeal wants to log in to the server. Since the server uses a public key authentication, instead of taking the password from the user, the server will verify if the User claiming to be zeal actually holds the right private key.
- The server creates a simple challenge, 2+3=? and encrypts this challenge with the Public Key of the User and sends it back to the User. The challenge is sent in an encrypted ...