The Java 2 Platform should have a way to allow applications to utilize the Kerberos infrastructure present in the operating system. The standard way of
accessing the authentication, encryption and integrity services of
Kerberos is via the Generic Security Service API (GSS-API).

GSS-API can support many different mechanisms besides Kerberos. It also allows for secure delegation of credentials from the client to the server. The GSS-API is token based and the caller can use any communication channel of his or her choice.

Java GSS-API is defined in RFC 2853 and is being reviewed in the JCP as JSR-072.