Initiative for Open Authentication

{{Short description|Collaboration to develop an open reference for strong authentication}} {{distinguish|OAuth}}

'''Initiative for Open Authentication''' ('''OATH''') is an industry-wide collaboration to develop an open reference architecture using open standards to promote the adoption of strong authentication. It has close to thirty coordinating and contributing members and is proposing standards for a variety of authentication technologies, with the aim of lowering costs and simplifying their functions.

== Terminology == The name ''OATH'' is an acronym from the phrase "open authentication", and is pronounced as the English word "oath".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/oauth/Wy34FxwKXwI/Y8mLJBV1Zl4J|title=Pronunciation and Capitalization|website=Google Groups|access-date=24 August 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20161114093938/https://groups.google.com/forum/%23!msg/oauth/Wy34FxwKXwI/Y8mLJBV1Zl4J|archive-date=14 November 2016}}</ref>

OATH is not related to OAuth, an open standard for authorization,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Walmart 2step Verification (2026) |url=https://wmlink2step.net/ |access-date=2026-04-07 |language=en-US}}</ref> however, most logging systems employ a mixture of both.

== See also == *HOTP: An HMAC-based one-time password algorithm (RFC 4226) *TOTP: Time-based one-time password algorithm (RFC 6238) *OCRA: OATH Challenge-Response Algorithm (RFC 6287) *Portable Symmetric Key Container (PSKC) (RFC 6030) *Dynamic Symmetric Key Provisioning Protocol (DSKPP) (RFC 6063) *FIDO Alliance

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == *{{Official website}} *[https://www.openauthentication.org/members.html List of OATH members] *[https://www.openauthentication.org/specifications.html OATH Specifications]

Category:Computer security organizations Category:Computer access control