Lightweight Third-Party Authentication (LTPA), is an

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an Logical assertion, assertion, such as the Digital identity, identity of a computer system user. In contrast with iden ...

technology used in IBM

WebSphere IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of proprietary computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create and integrate applications w ...

and Lotus Domino products. When accessing

web server A web server is computer software and underlying Computer hardware, hardware that accepts requests via Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, co ...

s that use the LTPA technology it is possible for a web user to re-use their

login In computer security, logging in (or logging on, signing in, or signing on) is the process by which an individual gains access to a computer system or program by identifying and authenticating themselves. Typically, user credential ...

across physical servers. A

Lotus Domino HCL Notes (formerly Lotus Notes then IBM Notes) is a proprietary collaborative software platform for Unix ( AIX), IBM i, Windows, Linux, and macOS, sold by HCLTech. The client application is called Notes while the server component is branded ...

server or an IBM

server that is configured to use the LTPA authentication will challenge the web user for a

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

and

password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

. When the user has been authenticated, their browser will have received a session cookie - a cookie that is only available for one browsing session. This cookie contains the LTPA token. If the user – after having received the LTPA token – accesses a server that is a member of the same authentication realm as the first server, and if the browsing session has not been terminated (the browser was not closed down), then the user is automatically authenticated and will not be challenged for a name and password. Such an environment is also called a single sign-on environment.

References

DeveloperToolbox Technical Magazine: WebSphere and Domino single sign-on

DominoTomcatSSO at OpenNTF.org: A open source implementation of LTPA for Tomcat

Websphere

Websphere Liberty Profile IBM software, Lightweight Third-Party Authentication Computer access control {{compu-network-stub

See also

References