************************************************************************
Read the link:NEWS.html[NEWS file] for release highlights and a full
list of changes.  See the link:download.html[Download page] for
download links.

'Simon Josefsson'
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Introduction
------------

The OATH Toolkit provide components for building one-time password
authentication systems.  It contains shared libraries, command line
tools and a PAM module.  Supported technologies include the
event-based HOTP algorithm (RFC4226) and the time-based TOTP algorithm
(RFC6238).  OATH stands for Open AuTHentication, which is the
organization that specify the algorithms.  For managing secret key
files, the Portable Symmetric Key Container (PSKC) format described in
RFC6030 is supported.

The components included in the package is:

  * liboath: A shared and static C library for OATH handling.

  * oathtool: A command line tool for generating and validating OTPs.

  * pam_oath: A PAM module for pluggable login authentication for OATH.

  * libpskc: A shared and static C library for PSKC handling.

  * pskctool: A command line tool for manipulating PSKC data.

For further information, see the link:docs.html[Documentation page].


License
-------

OATH Toolkit is free software and is licenced under the terms of the
'LGPLv2+' (libraries) and 'GPLv3+' (tools).


External Resources and Applications
-----------------------------------
Here are resources that I know of, if you know of more drop me a line
and I'll add them to the list.

- https://www.openauthentication.org/[Initiative for Open
  Authentication (OATH)] is the umbrella organization that published
  the HOTP/TOTP/PSKC technology.
- The https://openauthentication.org/specifications-technical-resources/[OATH
  Specifications] page for list of published documents.
- http://code.google.com/p/google-authenticator/[Google Authenticator]
  is/was a free implementation for several mobile platforms.
- The https://developers.yubico.com/yubioath-desktop/[Yubico
  Authenticator Desktop] is a free client-side implementation storing
  secrets on external hardware.
- Daniel Pocock maintains http://www.dynalogin.org/[Dynalogin] which
  is an Open Source two factor authentication suite.
- https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4226[RFC 4226 on HOTP: An HMAC-Based One-Time
  Password Algorithm].
- https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6238[RFC 6238 on TOTP: Time-Based
  One-Time Password Algorithm].
- https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6030[RFC 6030 on Portable Symmetric
  Key Container (PSKC)].
- https://github.com/malept/pyoath-toolkit[Python bindings for OATH
  Toolkit].

Please let me know if any of these links need updating.


Mailing list
------------

Discussion around the OATH Toolkit happens on the
https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/oath-toolkit-help[OATH
Toolkit discussion list], this keeps things transparent and gives
everyone a chance to comment.