Design of user authentication for small and medium networks

The main focus of this Master’s thesis is user authentication and access control in a computer network. I analyze the TCP/IP model in connection with security and describe main stepping stones of authentication protocols (mainly hash functions). The authentication protocol analysis follows. I begin with LANMAN protocol analysis for the reason of a security comparison. The NTLM, Kerberos and Radius follows. The focus is on the Kerberos which is chosen as a main authentication protocol. This is also a reason why the modification used in MS domains is described. The implementation and functional verification is placed in the second part which is more practical. The virtualization technology is used for an easier manipulation. The result is a computer network model requiring user authentication and minimizing the possibility of an attack by unauthorized clients