Two factor authentication using digital certificates

This post is in relation to a question asked by the reader

Question:

Angus comment on post "Certificate Authority for CISA Exam - its all abou...":

May I ask a question about how Digital certificates (also known as a soft token) can be used for two-factor authentication? Thanks a lot.

Answer:

Two factor authentication means use of following two factors:

1. Something You have
2. Something you are/Something you know

Let us first see what could be the one factor authorization. One factor authorization involves something you know- your user name and password. Best thing would be to combine this to something you have – digital certificate. The combination of these two will make this Two factor authentication.

Following will be the steps for simplest two factor authentication using digital certificate:

1. User account is created
2. User is linked to an unique digital certificate in the certificate database.
3. An unique digital certificate is installed in the user's system.
4. Through PKI user's digital certificate is verified and user is allowed to use SSL services.
5. By using user name and password created user gains access to the resources.

Benefits of using Digital Certificate for two factor authentication are:

1. Lower costs
2. Easy to use
3. Availability of many standards.

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