Authentication Routines
What is authentication?
- Authentication is the process of ensuring that a system is secure by asking the user to complete tasks to prove they are an authorised user of the system
- Authentication is done because bots can submit data in online forms
- Authentication can be done in several ways, these include
- Usernames and Passwords
- CAPTCHA
- Other methods that programmers can do to authenticate the user is include
- Allowing users to recover passwords via email links and SMS codes
- Encrypting data
Writing authentication routines
- An authentication routine is a method a programmer can use to ensure a user is entering the correct credentials to access a program or system
- The exam requirements are that students only need to be able to write plain text authentication routines and do not need to include encryption
- The examples below will be written in Python
Example authentication code using an If statement
- This first program is a very simple version and would not be used in a real-world program
- This example demonstrates the fundamentals of how an authentication check would take place
username = input("Enter a username ")
password = input("Enter a password ")
if username == "SaveMyExams" and password == "coding":
print("Welcome to the program"
else:
print("Wrong details entered")
Example authentication code using a 2D array
- This second program is a better version which stores the usernames and passwords in a 2 dimensional array
- This example demonstrates how iteration and selection can be used together to store and retrieve information
#2d array containing the usernames and passwords
users = [
["Dave", "password"],
["Alice", "password2"],
["Bob", "password3"],
["Jane", "password4"]
]
#Asks for the user to input their username
username = input("Enter username: ")
#Loops through the array to find the username input by the user
for i in range (0,len(users)):
if users[i][0] == username:
#If the username is found, it will ask for their password
password = input("Enter password: ")
if users[i][1] == password:
print("Welcome back " + username)
else:
print("Wrong password " + username)