[cap-talk] What's an authenticated authentication?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

I thought this list would be a good place to get feedback about an API I
stumbled upon:

  http://acegisecurity.org/acegi-security/apidocs/org/acegisecurity/AuthenticationManager.html

  Authentication authenticate(Authentication authentication)
                            throws AuthenticationException

    Attempts to authenticate the passed Authentication object, returning
    a fully populated Authentication object (including granted
    authorities) if successful.

Looking at the definitions of `authenticate' and `authentication' makes
me wonder about the meaning of this API in English (from WordNet):

  1. (1) authenticate -- (establish the authenticity of something)

  1. (7) authenticity, genuineness, legitimacy -- (undisputed credibility)

  1. authentication, hallmark, assay-mark -- (a mark on an article of
     trade to indicate its origin and authenticity)
  2. authentication, certification -- (validating the authenticity of
     something or someone)

So this method literally "establishes the authenticity of a mark that
validates the authenticity of something"?

It's also pretty far from the definition of `authentication' in papers
such as [0].

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Ludo'.

[0] http://mumble.net/~jar/pubs/secureos/secureos.html