About: Closed-loop authentication

Closed-loop authentication, as applied to computer network communication, refers to a mechanism whereby one party verifies the purported identity of another party by requiring them to supply a copy of a token transmitted to the canonical or trusted point of contact for that identity. It is also sometimes used to refer to a system of mutual authentication whereby two parties authenticate one another by signing and passing back and forth a cryptographically signed nonce, each party demonstrating to the other that they control the secret key used to certify their identity.