Public Key Infrastructure based Authentication and Access Control Framework For OAuth

Abstract

OAuth is a protocol which provides an open standard for authorization. It is commonly used as a way for internet users to log into third party web sites using their Microsoft, Google, Facebook or Twitter accounts without exposing their password. However, OAuth only provides simple username, password based authentication for end users. The focus of this research is to provide an additional layer of authentication to this username and password based authentication by using digital Certificates. This thesis contains the proposed design, implementation methodology and the evaluation of the developed protocol for extending OAuth for providing digital certificate based authentication. Within the design phase of the document, author discusses about the design of the solution which can be used to extend OAuth to use digital certificates as an authentication method. Then author moves on to discussing about the details of implementation which was done to simulate the proposed solution. Finally within the evaluation phase of the document, author discusses about the test cases performed and the observed test results and justifies feasibility of the proposed solution.