Scope

This part of ISO/IEC 9798 specifies eight entity authentication mechanisms based on manual data transfer between authenticating devices. It indicates how these mechanisms can be used to support key management functions, and provides guidance on secure choices of parameters for the mechanisms. A comparison of the levels of security and efficiency provided by the eight mechanisms is given. Such mechanisms can be appropriate in a variety of circumstances. One such application occurs in personal networks, where the owner of two personal devices capable of wireless communications wishes them to perform an entity authentication procedure as part of the process of preparing them for use in the network.