This post is not for everyone, but if you use a Mac and need to access Kerberos-based applications, you should know about Ticket Viewer. Everyone else can ignore!

Firstly, what is Kerberos? Simply put, it’s a network authentication protocol designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key cryptography.

Ticket Viewer, which can be found in “Keychain Access > Ticket Viewer (Command-Option-K)” is a small utility for managing Kerberos tickets. I use it to remove the need for me to individually authenticate when connected to corporate networks.

You simply need to click “Add Identity” and enter your Kerberos username and password. For example:

Identity: MSWBULL@EMA.WORK.COM
Password: xxx


The ticket will have an expiry date and unfortunately OS X will not automatically prompt you to refresh your Kerberos ticket. As a result you will need to manually refresh your ticket periodically.

os_x kerberos ticket_viewer