What is Kerberos?

Kerberos, a network authentication protocol, was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rice University is incorporating Kerberos in order to minimize the number of account names and passwords used by faculty, staff, and students. With a central authentication system, a person's NetID and password can be used by multiple applications and systems instead of creating and maintaining usernames and accounts for separate tools.

For a basic explanation of how Kerberos works and what it does, see The Moron's Guide to Kerberos or visit MIT's Kerberos web site.

Kerberos Trivia

The three-headed dog of Greek mythology, Kerberos (Cerberos in Latin), guarded the entrance to Hades. In more recent literature, Fluffy was the three-headed dog who guarded the passage leading --eventually-- to the Sorcerer's Stone in the first Harry Potter book. But who wants their identity guarded by a dog named Fluffy?

Links to More Information

Linking your accounts: accessing multiple IT resources with one password

What is NetID? explanation of the primary account for each computer user at Rice

How do I Get My NetID? simple steps for new Rice employees and students to discover their NetID

Linked Accounts: list linked accounts and the authenication used to sign on