Identification and authentication in IBM MQ

In IBM® MQ, you can implement identification and authentication using message context information and mutual authentication.

Here are some examples of the identification and authentication in an IBM MQ environment:
  • Every message can contain message context information. This information is held in the message descriptor. It can be generated by the queue manager when a message is put on a queue by an application. Alternatively, the application can supply the information if the user ID associated with the application is authorized to do so.

    The context information in a message allows the receiving application to find out about the originator of the message. It contains, for example, the name of the application that put the message and the user ID associated with the application.

  • When a message channel starts, it is possible for the message channel agent (MCA) at each end of the channel to authenticate its partner. This technique is known as mutual authentication. For the sending MCA, it provides assurance that the partner it is about to send messages to is genuine. For the receiving MCA, there is a similar assurance that it is about to receive messages from a genuine partner.