# Heimdal Kerberos 5 library

### 1.5.3

## Introduction

Heimdal libkrb5 library is a implementation of the Kerberos protocol.

Kerberos is a system for authenticating users and services on a network. It is built upon the assumption that the network is ``unsafe''. For example, data sent over the network can be eavesdropped and altered, and addresses can also be faked. Therefore they cannot be used for authentication purposes.

- Introduction to the Kerberos 5 API
- The principal handing functions.
- The credential cache functions
- The keytab handing functions

If you want to know more about the file formats that is used by Heimdal, please see: File formats

The project web page: http://www.h5l.org/