Needham and Schroeder: encryption protocols for network authentication

What changed

Proposed symmetric/public-key authentication protocols and message-integrity uses.

Scientific scope

The record is the exact two-author 1978 Communications of the ACM paper. It retains the protocols as published and does not back-project Lowe's later attack and repair, Kerberos or modern authenticated key-exchange guarantees into the original result.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is the exact two-author 1978 Communications of the ACM paper. It retains the protocols as published and does not back-project Lowe's later attack and repair, Kerberos or modern authenticated key-exchange guarantees into the original result.

Contributors

• Roger M. Needham · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Michael D. Schroeder · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• Xerox report copy of Needham-Schroeder paper
• ACM DOI for Needham-Schroeder paper

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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