Passwords in the Authentication object can be stored in one of three ways, all base64 encoded: as clear text, as one-way hashes, or as encrypted text resulting from the application of a symmetric or asymmetric cipher. Clear text passwords are not retrievable from values stored as one-way hashes-these hashed values can only be used to verify passwords input by a user. Clear text passwords can be retrieved from encrypted text, if the receiving system has the appropriate key to decrypt the encrypted text. This specification does not define the exchange of keys for symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic algorithms, but provides the KeyName attribute to associate a key with an encrypted password. It is envisioned that when systems exchange keys in a manner outside this specification, a key name is sufficient to retrieve a key for input to the appropriate decryption algorithm.

public class Authentication : SifDataObject

Public Class Authentication _
	Inherits SifDataObject

public ref class Authentication : public SifDataObject