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Leopard Reference Library: Security
Authentication is the process of determining and verifying the identity of a user or service. Developers can use the Mac OS X authentication services and programming interfaces to authenticate users and to store certificates that can be used for authentication. Note that although Authorization Services also performs authentication, it does not return the identity of the authenticated entity to the caller.

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Keychain Services Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
This document explains how to use Keychain Services to store and retrieve passwords.
Guides 2009-03-12
Certificate, Key, and Trust Services Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Shows how to evaluate trust for a certificate and recover from a trust failure.
Guides 2008-11-19
Certificate, Key, and Trust Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes services to read and evaluate certificates and to use cryptographic keys.
Reference 2008-11-19
Keychain Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the Keychain Services API, used to create, find, modify, and delete keychain items.
Reference 2008-11-19
Kerberos GSS (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Kerberos GSS-API Sample
Sample Code 2008-06-04
CryptNoMore (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to authenticate a user using Open Directory (Directory Services).
Sample Code 2008-03-17
BetterAuthorizationSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows the recommended way to access privileged functionality from a non-privileged application on Mac OS X.
Sample Code 2007-11-27
Cryptographic Message Syntax Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the API for encrypting, signing, and decoding messages using Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS).
Reference 2007-10-31
Describing the kSecTrustResultUnspecified error. (HTML)
QA1360: Explaining the semantics behind the kSecTrustResultUnspecified error returned by the Security APIs.
Technical Q&As 2007-02-05
Kerberos: Highly Secure Single Sign On Authentication in Mac OS X (HTML)
Learn how you can take advantage of Kerberos in your application.
Articles 2007-02-05
AuthorizationCreateFromExternalForm 100022 Error Explained (HTML)
QA1498: Explains the undocumented 100022 return value from AuthorizationCreateFromExternalForm.
Technical Q&As 2007-01-04
Programmatically Accessing and Manipulating Multiple Keychain Items (HTML)
QA1486: An explanation on what is and is not possible using the SecKeychain API to manipulate Keychain Items.
Technical Q&As 2006-10-03
NameAndPassword (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
NameAndPassword is a SFAuthorizationPluginView subclass example.
Sample Code 2006-07-28
SecurityInterface Data Types Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the data types found in the Security Interface framework.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFCertificatePanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays one or more certificates in a panel or sheet.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFCertificateTrustPanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that enables the user to edit the trust settings in a certificate.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFCertificateView Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that displays the contents of a certificate.
Reference 2006-05-23
SFChooseIdentityPanel Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that allows a user to select an identity from a list.
Reference 2006-05-23
Keychain Manager Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the legacy C API for managing passwords for multiple users and databases. Replaced by Keychain Services.
Reference 2005-07-07
MoreIsBetter (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Library providing indispensable wrapers and workarounds for many areas of Mac OS programming.
Sample Code 2003-10-27
BSDLLCTest (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Program sample demonstrates how to send and receive raw LLC Ethernet packets.
Sample Code 2003-06-12