Moving forward passwordless authentication: challenges and implementations for the private cloud

Abstract

Authentication is necessary anytime we need to certify our identity. The most used type of authentication is done by using a username and a password. Historically, multi-factor authentication (MFA) came as next level of authentication. It is a great way to secure your organization, but most of the users get frustrated with the additional security feature on top of having to remember their passwords. Passwordless authentication is more convenient because the password now is removed and replaced with something you have, and it cannot be forgotten. These solutions permit users to access their workstation, application, or network by using their fingerprint, eye scan or voice recognition. Passwordless authentication nowadays is used on large corporations, and environments where authentication security is very important. As novelty, the current article is presenting a Passwordless implementation solution for OpenStack private cloud. The solution can be implemented with minimal configuration changes also on other private cloud environments. A comparison between classic authentication and Passwordless is made at the end of the article with the purpose of understanding the advantages of this new authentication system.