Glossary

Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI)

The Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI) is the Microsoft version of the GSSAPI standard. SSPI provides a uniform interface for using compliant authentication protocols in Windows 2000. An application using SSPI on Windows 2000 can interoperate with another application using GSSAPI on another platform, using Kerberos mutual authentication. Four broad categories of APIs exist in SSPI: package management, credential management, context management, and message support. The Microsoft Windows 2000 implementation includes support for SPNEGO.