Digest Authentication

Like basic authentication, digest authentication authenticates a user based on a user name and a password. However, unlike basic authentication, digest authentication does not send user passwords over the network. Instead, the client sends a one-way cryptographic hash of the password and additional data. Although passwords are not sent on the wire, digest authentication requires that clear-text password equivalents be available to the authenticating container so that it can validate received authenticators by calculating the expected digest.