PAP

networkingsecurity

Stands for: Password Authentication Protocol

The Password Authentication Protocol - PPP's simplest, and least safe, way to log in: the password in plaintext.

PAP sends the username and password across the link unprotected, in a single exchange. It is trivial to implement and trivial to sniff, which is why CHAP exists and why PAP is only acceptable when the link itself is already encrypted or trusted. It endures as a fallback and as the textbook example of why authentication protocols evolved toward challenge-response and away from sending the secret.

Also known as: pap, password authentication protocol

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