Microsoft KB Archive/179958

= When to Use "Already Verified Authentication" =

Article ID: 179958

Article Last Modified on 4/5/2000

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft COM Transaction Integrator for CICS and IMS 1.0

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This article was previously published under Q179958



SUMMARY
The Already Verified Authentication option is specified on the Security tab of the COM Transaction Integrator (COMTI) Remote Environment (RE) Properties dialog box.

Under certain circumstances when you select that option, only a user ID is sent to the mainframe; no password is sent. The mainframe determines that this user ID has already been authenticated and does not require a password. This is possible when COMTI uses Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) package credentials or Windows NT user credentials for authentication.

However, if the COMTI security override is being used instead, the transport always insists on having both the user ID and the password. Both are sent to the host. If the Already Verified Authentication indicator is set on the RE, it is ignored in this case.



Rationale for Using "Already Verified Authentication"
When using integrated host security with MTS package credentials or Windows NT user credentials, mainframe credentials cannot be ascertained by COMTI or the client application.

COMTI and SNA Server act as a trusted entity, verifying the user's identity first. Therefore, there is no need to send a password to the mainframe, which would waste more cycles to check it on the mainframe side.

Rationale for Ignoring "Already Verified Authentication" When Using COMTI

Security Override
In this case, COMTI has direct access to the mainframe credentials. If COMTI would send only the user ID, an application could easily guess at one or another user ID, because user IDs are similar in most installations. Without having to know a password, the application could do things on the mainframe using the pilfered user ID.

Identify security (ATTACHSEC=IDENTIFY in the CICS Connection definition) implies that the local logical unit (LU) on the computer has already verified the identity of the user, so the host can trust you. However, in the case of the application override, that is not true; COMTI is unable to determine who the user is.

Keywords: kbinfo KB179958

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