Kerberos and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Trust Models: A Comparison

Comparison of Kerberos and PKI Trust Models

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Question

There are parallels between the trust models in Kerberos and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

When we compare them side by side, Kerberos tickets correspond most closely to which of the following?

Answers

Explanations

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A. B. C. D.

C.

A Kerberos ticket is issued by a trusted third party.It is an encrypted data structure that includes the service encryption key.In that sense it is similar to a public- key certificate.However, the ticket is not the key.

The following answers are incorrect: public keys.

Kerberos tickets are not shared out publicly, so they are not like a PKI public key.

private keys.Although a Kerberos ticket is not shared publicly, it is not a private key.Private keys are associated with Asymmetric crypto system which is not used by Kerberos.Kerberos uses only the Symmetric crypto system.

private key certificates.

This is a detractor.There is no such thing as a private key certificate.

Kerberos and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) are two different authentication systems used in computer networks. Kerberos is a network authentication protocol used to provide secure communication over an insecure network, while PKI is a system used to manage digital certificates and public key encryption.

When comparing the trust models of Kerberos and PKI, there are some parallels. For example, both systems use a trusted third party to establish and verify identities, and both rely on cryptographic keys to provide authentication and confidentiality.

In Kerberos, users are authenticated using a ticket-granting ticket (TGT), which is issued by the Kerberos authentication server. This ticket is then used to request a service ticket, which is used to access a specific network resource. The service ticket includes a session key that is used to encrypt and decrypt the communication between the user and the network resource.

When comparing Kerberos tickets to the components of PKI, Kerberos tickets correspond most closely to private-key certificates. This is because the ticket contains a session key that is used to encrypt and decrypt communication between the user and the network resource, which is similar to how a private key is used to encrypt and decrypt messages in PKI.

In PKI, a public-key certificate is used to verify the identity of a user or device. The certificate contains a public key and other identifying information, and is signed by a trusted certificate authority (CA). This is similar to how a TGT is signed by the Kerberos authentication server.

Overall, while there are some similarities between Kerberos and PKI, they are two different authentication systems with different components and use cases. However, understanding the parallels between the trust models of these systems can help in developing a more comprehensive understanding of network security.