AuthenticationPolicy Class
Defines the contract that security policy providers must implement to control client authentication.
Syntax
public abstract class AuthenticationPolicy
Remarks
The AuthenticationPolicy class is an abstract class used to define the policy for authenticating client credentials within the .NET Framework's network security services. It provides a mechanism for developers to implement custom authentication logic or to plug in existing security providers.
When you establish a secure connection using classes like SslStream or TcpClientSSL, you might need to specify an authentication policy to determine how clients are validated. The AuthenticationPolicy class serves as the base for these custom policies.
Key scenarios where you might use custom authentication policies include:
- Implementing proprietary authentication mechanisms.
- Integrating with existing enterprise security systems.
- Enforcing specific certificate validation rules beyond the defaults.
To use a custom authentication policy, you typically create a class that inherits from AuthenticationPolicy and overrides its abstract methods. This derived class can then be provided to the relevant security classes during connection setup.
Methods
CreateClient #
public abstract ICertificatePolicy CreateClient()
Remarks
This method must be implemented by derived classes to return an instance of a class that implements the ICertificatePolicy interface. This policy is used for client-side certificate validation.
CreateServer #
public abstract ICertificatePolicy CreateServer()
Remarks
This method must be implemented by derived classes to return an instance of a class that implements the ICertificatePolicy interface. This policy is used for server-side certificate validation.
Inheritance Hierarchy
System.Object
System.Net.Security.AuthenticationPolicy
Requirements
Namespace: System.Net.Security
Assembly: System (in System.dll)