Distauth will be retired this fall

UC Davis will retire its Distauth authentication service this fall. The change will eliminate the cost of maintaining a service that the campus no longer needs.

Information and Educational Technology plans to retire Distauth on Nov. 15, but can provide some flexibility for individual clients, based on need.

Authentication services verify your identity when you sign in to a computer account. Distauth, short for Distributed Authentication, was developed at UC Davis in 1997 as a single sign-on service to allow system administrators to restrict access to information on local websites. It has served the campus well, but alternatives that are more secure and modern are now available.

Administrators of the remaining websites that use Distauth will need to switch to CAS or Shibboleth, widely used alternatives already deployed at UC Davis. IET is sending additional details about the change to campus technologists, and to VLAN (virtual local area network) contacts for websites that use Distauth.

Most people on campus should not notice any difference when Distauth is retired. Some might notice that their website log-in screen has changed, because the CAS sign-on looks different from the one for Distauth.

IET will release additional communications about the end of Distauth over the next several months. It has also created a website with instructions and contacts for further information or help.

Please direct any questions or comments about the retirement of Distauth to the project group by emailing websso@ucdavis.edu.