Abstract: A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for multi-device operations within an authentication framework. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: detecting N authentication devices on a client, wherein N>1; generating a N cryptographic entities, one for each of the N authentication devices; transmitting a command to the client to register each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the N authentication devices; executing the command on the client and responsively registering each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the respective N authentication devices; and subsequently using at least one of the authentication devices and its associated cryptographic entity for authenticating a user of the client over a network.

Abstract: A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for determining the authentication capabilities. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: receiving a policy identifying a set of acceptable authentication capabilities; determining a set of client authentication capabilities; and filtering the set of acceptable authentication capabilities based on the determined set of client authentication capabilities to arrive at a filtered set of one or more authentication capabilities for authenticating a user of the client.

Abstract: A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for multi-device operations within an authentication framework. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: detecting N authentication devices on a client, wherein N>1; generating a N cryptographic entities, one for each of the N authentication devices; transmitting a command to the client to register each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the N authentication devices; executing the command on the client and responsively registering each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the respective N authentication devices; and subsequently using at least one of the authentication devices and its associated cryptographic entity for authenticating a user of the client over a network.