Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface

security, programming (GSS-API) An application level

interface (API) to system security services. It provides a

generic interface to services which may be provided by a

variety of different security mechanisms. Vanilla GSS-API

supports security contexts between two entities (known as

"principals").

GSS-API is a draft internet standard which is being developed

in the Common Authentication Technology Working Group

(cat-wg) of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Initial specifications for GSS-API appeared in RFC 1508 and

RFC 1509. Subsequent revisions appeared in several draft

standards documents.

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(1996-05-19)