AN AUTHENTICATION SCHEME FOR INSTANT MESSAGING SYSTEM

This paper presents an instant messaging system designed as LAN supported application with a suggested method to authenticate users. Our system provides simple, fast and secure authentication method. The suggested authenticated method combines two mechanisms: fixed password and digital signature to overcome the problems faced the use of these methods when used alone. The designed instant messaging system has some traditional features like those given by any instant messaging system. It uses TCP/IP protocol to communicate between hosts. All connections between server and clients are based on client/server networking model, while connections between clients is based on peer-to-peer networking model. The proposed system has been evaluated according to two aspects: user’s login security and overall system performance, the evaluation shows quite encouraging results.