The SSH Tectia client-side components authenticate the Secure Shell server in order to verify that they are connecting to the correct server. Likewise, the Secure Shell server authenticates the client user. The server can be authenticated by either (plain) public-key authentication or certificate authentication. When certificate authentication is used, the public key is included in the certificate that the server sends to the client.

In (plain) public-key authentication, the server sends its public key to the client at the beginning of the first connection, and after the user has once verified and accepted the key, it is used in all future connections to that server.

In certificate authentication, the SSH Tectia client-side components rely on a trusted third party, a certification authority (CA) to verify the server's identity. The signature of the certification authority in the server certificate guarantees the authenticity of the server certificate.

Client-side users can use certificates as proof of their identity. Certificates work like passports; the user prooves his or her identity to a certificate authority once using public keys, receives a certificate and from then on can authenticate using the certificate.

Public-key authentication (without certificates) provides an easy-to-deploy and secure means of authenticating the users without the need to deploy and maintain a public-key infrastructure (PKI). Users will create key pairs for themselves, and upload the public keys to the server for verification.

SSH Tectia Client and ConnectSecure incorporate authentication agent functionality that allows the caching of passphrases, eliminating the need to retype the passphrase each time when a connection is made. Passphrases are used in public-key authentication, which is more secure than password authentication. In addition, authentication can be "forwarded" to another machine, allowing administrators to hop from one server to another without the need to store private keys in multiple servers.

SSH Tectia supports secure password-based authentication. Unlike in plaintext protocols such as Telnet and FTP, passwords are never sent in plaintext format over the network, thus eliminating the risk of password exposure to unauthorised parties.

SSH Tectia supports X.509v3 certificates for further security and scalability in large and dynamic network environments. Comprehensive support for IETF PKIX and PKCS standards ensures seamless interoperability with third-party PKI products.

SSH Tectia supports both Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) for centralized revocation of user credentials. CRLs are automatically fetched from a local file or by using HTTP or LDAP, depending on the local settings and the CRL Distribution Point extension in the certificate. CRLs can also be imported offline in legacy environments.

SSH Tectia supports IETF PKIX standards (CMPv2) and Cisco Systems' Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) for online certificate enrollment. Certificates can also be imported by using the PKCS#12 envelope format supported by most Certification Authorities (CAs). SSH Tectia has been integrated with Entrust PKI for transparent certificate lifecycle management in Entrust environments. Entrust support is available on Windows platforms.

SSH Tectia Client and ConnectSecure support smart cards, USB tokens, and other PKI authentication devices by supporting PKCS#11 and MSCAPI for interfacing with authentication keys. Strong, two-factor authentication overcomes the inherent security issues of password authentication.

Host-based authentication is a form of delegated trust authentication, where the Secure Shell server trusts the Secure Shell client host to authenticate the user. The user is verified by a suid binary (ssh-signer) on the client host which then confirms the user identity to the server in a communication signed with a root-owned host key. The client host is authenticated strongly with public key cryptography, thus the authentication does not rely solely on a host IP address or domain name. The Secure Shell host-based authentication utilizes strong cryptography for host identity verification.

Keyboard-interactive is a standards-based method of integrating Secure Shell with third-party authentication mechanisms that are based on keyboard input, without the need to modify the client-side application (SSH Tectia Client). Keyboard-interactive is commonly used in conjunction with PAM and RADIUS on the server side.

SSH Tectia Server supports Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) for integrating with third-party authentication systems that have standards-based PAM libraries.

SSH Tectia Server can utilize standards-based third-party LDAP directories as centralized user repositories. The keyboard-interactive method and third-party PAM modules for LDAP can be used for integrating SSH Tectia Server on Unix with LDAP directories.

SSH Tectia Client, ConnectSecure, and Server support RSA SecurID for strong, two-factor authentication. The keyboard-interactive method is used for providing the password from SSH Tectia Client or ConnectSecure to Server, which is integrated with the RSA Authentication Agent libraries for seamless interoperability.

The RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) protocol can be used with the SSH Tectia client/server solution for checking users' authentication and authorization information from a remote server. Keyboard-interactive is used for sending the password to SSH Tectia Server, which interfaces with the third-party RADIUS server such as Microsoft IAS or FreeRADIUS.

Kerberos/GSSAPI authentication enables transparent, single sign-on alike authentication of SSH Tectia Client users. Once the user has logged on to the network and received the logon credentials, there is no need to type in the authentication credentials again through SSH Tectia Client user interface when accessing Secure Shell servers. Specifically, Kerberos/GSSAPI authentication enables the use of Windows domain authentication and Active Directory accounts with SSH Tectia (SSPI API in Windows).

SSH Tectia Client, ConnectSecure, and Server support the legacy OpenSSH public-key format, eliminating the need for manual key conversions in multi-vendor Secure Shell environments. The key-compatibility feature also allows easy migration of OpenSSH environments to SSH Tectia.

Integration of SSH Tectia with Centrify DirectControl enables secure host access while leveraging Active Directory-based identity management throughout multi-platform enterprise networks.