XWiki Standard embbeds several authentication mechanisms by default:

• Form authentication
• Basic authentication

In addition XWiki allows you to create your own authentication extension in order to integrate with any custom mechanism you might be using already (SSO, etc).

Note that several additional authenticators are being developed and are currently available as extensions on extensions.xwiki.org or in source format in our Contribution repository:

• LDAP authentication
• Headers authentication
• NTLM authentication
• PUMA authentication
• SAML authentication
• Sun SSO authentication

For more details on how to configure authentication check the Authentication page of the Administration Guide.