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Axel Janssen
Ranch Hand
Posts: 2166
posted 15 years ago
Which of the following are correct about HTTP basic authentication mechanism?
I took: Password is passed in encrypted form.
Right answer: Password is passed as plain text.
Explanation:Basic Authentication is not a secure authentication protocol. User passwords are sent in simple base64 encoding, and the target server is not authenticated.
I think: base64 might be not secure but it is an encryption mechanism.
Am I missing something?
Axel
[ February 28, 2002: Message edited by: Axel Janssen ]
I took: Password is passed in encrypted form.
Right answer: Password is passed as plain text.
Explanation:Basic Authentication is not a secure authentication protocol. User passwords are sent in simple base64 encoding, and the target server is not authenticated.
I think: base64 might be not secure but it is an encryption mechanism.
Am I missing something?
Axel
[ February 28, 2002: Message edited by: Axel Janssen ]
Paul Anilprem
Enthuware Software Support
Ranch Foreman
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Posts: 4019
33
posted 15 years ago
Base64 encoding is not exactly an encryption. It's a conversion from ASCII format to Base64 format(as good as ASCII to say EBCDIC). You would not say that ASCII and EBCDIC are encryption mechanisms. Would you 
Just like ASCII represents A by 65, Base64 represents it by 0.
For more info: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1521.html
Just like ASCII represents A by 65, Base64 represents it by 0.
For more info: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1521.html
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Axel Janssen
Ranch Hand
Posts: 2166
