Its been nearly two years since the release of Network Identity Manager 1.3 as part of MIT Kerberos for Windows. Network Identity Manager is preparing to breakout on its own with version 2.0.

With version 2.0 the door is opened for identities based upon authentication technologies other than Kerberos v5. Whereas version 1.x is limited to providing a single sign-on experience when the initial authentication is performed with a Kerberos v5 principal name and password, version 2 permits KeyStore and Certificate initial authentication identities to be implemented. A KeyStore authentication can be used to automatically obtain Kerberos v5 ticket granting tickets for multiple Kerberos v5 identities. Each identity in turn can be used to obtain its own derived credentials such as AFS tokens, Kerberized Certificate Authority issued short lifetime X.509 client certificates, or various forms of web authentication credentials. Certificate based identites might be used with Public Key Initial Authentication for Kerberos (PKINIT) or the Globus Global Security Infrastructure.

Version 2 also improves the end user experience with:

• a new identity creation wizard
• progress dialogs
• a streamlined and less error prone mechanism for obtaining new credentials
• an updated credential display that is cleaner, less confusing, and more informative

For additional information on the upcoming Network Identity Manager version 2 see:
http://www.secure-endpoints.com/netidmgr/roadmap.html