{ "model": { "rank": 7175, "code": "thing-q212108", "model_id": "vr.tr.authentication", "name": "authentication", "purpose": "Let an agent explain authentication and its methods, relay standards and best practice from security sources at a defensive level, describe forensic and physical authentication, and distinguish authentication from authorisation, identification and the health authority sense of the HBA alias, without providing guidance on bypassing authentication.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q212108/", "tier": 2, "score": 56, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "message authentication", "deniable authentication", "username/password authentication", "questioned document examination", "PUK2", "HBA", "Windows Hello for Business Multi Factor Unlock", "user authentization", "public key authentication", "key authentication", "Windows Hello", "electronic authentication", "email authentication", "Form-based authentication", "HTTP+HTML form-based authentication", "mutual authentication", "Risk-based authentication", "Violin authentication", "personal unblocking key", "passwordless authentication", "SSH public key authentication", "Windows Hello for Business" ], "aliasCount": 22, "merged": 23, "knownIn": 56, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q212108", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q212108", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T13:03:09Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q212108", "registryId": "vr.tr.authentication", "name": "authentication", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q212108/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.authentication", "name": "authentication", "purpose": "Let an agent explain authentication and its methods, relay standards and best practice from security sources at a defensive level, describe forensic and physical authentication, and distinguish authentication from authorisation, identification and the health authority sense of the HBA alias, without providing guidance on bypassing authentication.", "definition": "The process of verifying that a person, device or message is what it claims to be, in computer security through username and password authentication, multi-factor methods, cryptographic message authentication codes and deniable authentication protocols, in telecommunications through SIM unlock codes such as the PUK2, and, in the questioned document sense, through forensic examination of documents; authentication is a security control distinct from authorisation and identification.", "what_it_is_for": "Verifying identity and integrity.", "affordances": [ "explain methods", "relay standards and practice", "describe forensic authentication", "distinguish related concepts" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Identity verification", "Multiple factors", "Cryptographic and physical forms", "Security control" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; a login, a code, a signature check.", "visual_identification": [ "Verifying a claimed identity or origin", "Password authentication, multi-factor, message authentication codes, deniable authentication, PUK2, questioned document examination", "Authorisation grants rights; identification states who; the HBA alias is a health professional card, not a method" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "authentication factors", "typical_range": "knowledge, possession, inherence", "unit": "list", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "NIST SP 800-63", "typical_range": "digital identity guidelines", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "PUK2", "typical_range": "unlocks PIN2 on a SIM", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "password and knowledge-based authentication", "multi-factor and passwordless authentication", "message authentication with MACs and signatures", "deniable authentication protocols", "device and SIM authentication including PUK codes", "forensic authentication of documents and objects" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "security control", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "verification", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "authorization", "why": "which grants access rights" }, { "relation": "is standardised by", "target": "NIST SP 800-63", "why": "among others" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "NIST SP 800-63 digital identity guidelines", "FIDO2 and WebAuthn standards", "PSD2 strong customer authentication rules", "eIDAS in the EU" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Agents providing bypass or attack guidance", "Weak passwords and phishing", "Registry aliases naming unrelated identifiers" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What authentication is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is authentication, and how does it differ from authorisation and identification?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the concept, a method, forensics, or bypassing controls, which the model does not assist?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "methods", "name": "Methods", "description": "Methods.", "findings": [ { "id": "methods-finding", "name": "Methods", "description": "Methods.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are password, multi-factor, passwordless, message and deniable authentication?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific method?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Defensive practice.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "standards", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "findings": [ { "id": "standards-finding", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do NIST, FIDO and regulatory standards recommend for strong authentication?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "threats", "name": "Threats", "description": "Threats and defences.", "findings": [ { "id": "threats-finding", "name": "Threats", "description": "Threats.", "questions": [ { "text": "What threats such as phishing and credential stuffing exist, and how are they defended against at a general level?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation defensive and non-operational?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "other", "name": "Other", "description": "Other senses.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "telecom", "name": "Telecom", "description": "SIM and device codes.", "findings": [ { "id": "telecom-finding", "name": "Telecom", "description": "Telecom.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are PIN, PUK and PUK2 codes, and how are they used legitimately?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forensic", "name": "Forensic", "description": "Forensic authentication.", "findings": [ { "id": "forensic-finding", "name": "Forensic", "description": "Forensic.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does questioned document examination authenticate documents, and how are artworks authenticated?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits questioned document examination?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Cryptography and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "crypto", "name": "Cryptography", "description": "Message authentication.", "findings": [ { "id": "crypto-finding", "name": "Cryptography", "description": "Cryptography.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do message authentication codes and digital signatures work?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits message authentication code?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has authentication developed from seals and passwords to biometrics and passkeys?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of computer security?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should multi-factor authentication and questioned document examination be separate primary entries?", "How should security standards be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming a SIM code and a health card; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a authentication, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain authentication and its methods, relay standards and best practice from security sources at a defensive level, describe forensic and physical authentication, and distinguish authentication from authorisation, identification and the health authority sense of the HBA alias, without providing guidance on bypassing authentication.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: message authentication, deniable authentication, username/password authentication, questioned document examination, PUK2, HBA, Windows Hello for Business Multi Factor Unlock, user authentization, public key authentication, key authentication, Windows Hello, electronic authentication.", "23 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 56 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a authentication, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "message authentication", "deniable authentication", "username/password authentication", "questioned document examination", "PUK2", "HBA", "Windows Hello for Business Multi Factor Unlock", "user authentization", "public key authentication", "key authentication", "Windows Hello", "electronic authentication" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 56 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 23 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one authentication from another, and a authentication from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a authentication sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a authentication from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a authentication passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a authentication between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a authentication, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a authentication is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a authentication proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a authentication, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a authentication and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a authentication consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a authentication takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What authentication is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of authentication are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is authentication operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of authentication and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of authentication?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as authentication?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a authentication came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a authentication and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a authentication is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a authentication, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a authentication, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a authentication is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }