Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)

Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)

Extensible authentication protocol is an authentication framework.  It is not a specific authentication mechanism.  This protocol provides about 40 different methods, functions and negotiations of authentication.

Extensible authentication protocol is basically a framework that provides for the transportation and usage of keying materials and parameters. The EAP is considered the most secure of the authentication protocols.

Extensible authentication protocol is typically used for wireless networks.  It also has a number of vendor specific methods and new proposals that have been developed to secure enterprise wide LANs and virtual networks.

Some of the different methods that are included with the EAP are IETF RFCS which also include EAP- MD5, EAP-POTP, EAP-GTC, EAP-TLS, EAP-IKEv2,EAP- SIM, EAP-AKA and EAP-AKA’. The specific EAPs used for wireless LAN authentication are included in the RFC 4017

EAP is considered extensible because it allows developers to create new authentication types that can be plugged into your existing EAP deployments.

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• Authentication Protocols
• Password Authentication Protocol (PAP)
• Shiva Password Authentication Protocol (SPAP)
• Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP)
• Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (MS-CHAP) V1 and V2
• Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)