UAF

UAF is an acronym that can refer to several distinct entities or standards, depending on context. The two most widely known uses are the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Universal Authentication Framework.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is a public research university in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is part of the University of Alaska system and was established in 1917 as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. UAF offers undergraduate and graduate programs across disciplines including science, engineering, arts, and health. It is notable for Arctic and northern studies, space science, and indigenous studies, and it hosts research facilities such as the Poker Flat Research Range, used for rocket and satellite experiments.

Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) is a former FIDO Alliance standard for passwordless authentication. It describes how a user can authenticate to a relying party using a registered device that stores cryptographic credentials. Authentication involves user verification via biometrics or a PIN, with keys kept on the device and never transmitted. UAF aimed to provide phishing-resistant authentication and is often mentioned alongside FIDO2/WebAuthn, which offers similar capabilities through a different protocol. In practice, many deployments migrated to FIDO2, but UAF remains referenced in historical and standards discussions.

There are other, less common uses of the acronym UAF in various sectors; context is required to determine the intended meaning.