PKI-Based Authentication Mechanisms in Grid Systems

Grids have emerged as the basic infrastructure for high performance distributed computing and data collaborations. Although they depict an attractive new world of computing, security is the biggest barrier against wide adoption of Grids. Authentication is the basis of security in grids. GSI uses X.509 PKI and proxy certificates as authentication foundation, and uses gateway for mapping certificates between different authentication mechanisms. In this article, we review PKI and PKI-based authentication mechanisms used in grid systems. These mechanisms are insufficient or problematic under some circumstances. We study and analyze some prominent challenges or problems: compatibility across different PKIs, proxy certificate revocation, security weakness, and authentication in ad hoc grids. For each of them, we introduce possible solutions, and analyze state-of-the-art technologies and ongoing researches that indicate the direction of future work on this topic.