A Credential Service Provider (CSP) is an element of an authentication system, most typically identified as a seperate entity in a Federated authentication system. In computer security, authentication (Greek: αυθεντικός, from authentes=author) is the process by which a computer, computer program, or another user attempts to confirm that the computer, computer program, or user from whom the second party has received some communication is, or is not, the claimed first party. ...
In any authentication system, some entity is required to authenticate the user on behalf of the target application or service. For many years there was poor understanding of the impact of security and the multiplicity of services and applications that would ultimately require authentication. Therefore many services and applications were built embedding the CSP function. The result of this is that not only are users burdened with many credentials that they must remember or carry around with them, but also applications and services must perform some level of registration and then some level of authentication of those users. A CSP decouples those functions from the application or service and typically provides trust to that application or service over a network (such as the Internet). Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform. ... Computer security is a field of computer science concerned with the control of risks related to computer use. ... A credential is a proof of qualification, competence, or clearance that is attached to a person, and often considered an attribute of that person. ...
The term CSP is used frequently in the context of the US government'seGov and eauthentication initiatives. This article describes the government of the United States. ... This article contains information that has not been verified. ...
An example of a CSP would be an online site whose primary purpose may be, for example, internet banking - but whose users may be subsequently authenticated to other sites, applications or services without further action on their part.
It indicates that the serviceprovider has been found to meet certain minimal qualifications required by law, and that the serviceprovider is subject to regulation and sanctions if found to be violating the law.
The surety (insurance provider) agrees to be responsible to the obligee (the party insured) for the conduct of the principal (the serviceprovider).
Finally, the serviceprovider must authenticate itself to the client using the underlying authentication protocol used by the system, possibly as part of a mutual authentication protocol in which the client and serviceprovider prove their identities to one another.
Credentials (e.g., an ISO 9000 certificate) result from assessments and measurements by independent authorities that are recognized as qualified to perform them.
The combination of credentials that gives a requestor enough confidence to interact with the provider could be defined in a formula, though making this `formula for trust' public could work adversely for the requestor in some cases.
As shown in Table 1, in the case of static binding, the credentials of the provider can be checked before the requestor application becomes operational, so that the requestor does not have to deal with the provider'scredentials at run time.
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