Policy Server Guides › Policy Server Configuration Guide › Authentication Schemes › Authentication Schemes Overview › Authentication Scheme Types › Windows Authentication Scheme

Windows Authentication Scheme

Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) is a proprietary mechanism developed by Microsoft to validate users in pure Windows environments. IWA enforces Single Sign-On by allowing Windows to gather user credentials during the initial interactive desktop login process and subsequently transmitting that information to the security layer. SiteMinder, using the Windows Authentication scheme, secures resources by processing user credentials obtained by the Microsoft Integrated Windows Authentication infrastructure.

Previous versions of SiteMinder supported Windows authentication through the NTLM authentication scheme. However, this support was limited to environments with NT Domains or where the Active Directory service is configured to support legacy NT Domains in mixed mode.

The Windows authentication scheme allows SiteMinder to provide access control in deployments with Active Directories running in native mode, as well as Active Directories configured to support NTLM authentication. The Windows Authentication scheme replaces SiteMinder's previous NTLM authentication scheme. Existing NTLM authentication schemes continue to be supported and can be configured using the new Windows Authentication scheme.

The NTLM authentication scheme can be used for resources that are protected by Web Agents on IIS Web servers, and whose users access resources via Internet Explorer Web browsers. This scheme relies on a properly-configured IIS Web server to acquire and verify a user's credentials. The Policy Server bases authorization decisions on the user's identity as asserted by the IIS server.