What is a authkey?

Question

What is a authkey?

Answer 1

One of the challenges in setting up a communications channel over a WAN is authenticating the other side. Legacy interfaces, such as RS232, rarely made any provisions for authentication.

In a WAN scenario, the authentication factor gains importance. What if someone 'hijacked' the connection to your devices, so that your serial data went to a 'fake' server?

Similarly, it is necessary for the LinkServer to know that the Device Servers it is communicating with are "genuine" -- meaning, they're the actual devices from which data is expected. If there is no way to know this for sure, it might be possible for a third party to 'inject' false data into your system.

Such security breaches may have serious consequences in a production environment. This is why Tibbo LinkServer system incorporates a powerful authentication mechanism, implemented in hardware -- The AuthKey. The authentication itself is done by the "black box"-- the AuthKey -- which makes it impossible to spoof or reverse-engineer the authentication process by analysing LinkServer operation or its source code.

The AuthKey is similar in appearance to the DS202 Device Server, but its housing is red (magenta, actually). In terms of hardware, it is the DS202 with certain enhancements. The AuthKey is used to run a totally different firmware, which handles the authentication procedure. Regular "stock" DS202 can be converted into a "trial" AuthKey.

The authentication procedure is performed every time a Device Server logs onto the LinkServer to start communicating. At this point the DS sends certain identification parameters to the LinkServer. Instead of verifying these parameters directly, the LinkServer passes the data on to the AuthKey. The AuthKey then verifies this information, and answers back to the LinkServer if it's OK to establish a connection or not.

The DS also verifies authenticity of the LinkServer and AuthKey. This two-way authentication mechanism makes sure that both the Device Server and the LinkServer/AuthKey are "genuine".

The AuthKey also plays a role of a  licensing keythat enforces the maximum number of Device Servers connected to your LinkServer (The price for the LinkServer depends on the number of Device Servers that can be used with it).

Answer 2

If the previous answer wasn't helpful, an authkey is short for authentication key. It's often a number that you need to prove that you bought the software.