You should contact your departmental or faculty computing help desk for assistance, or contact the IST Service Desk at extension 44357 or helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca.

If you have recently been unable log in to CAS, you may have a problem with your WatIAM password. Please read this document for further information.

CAS must be able to set a browser cookie, so if you have disabled cookies in your web browser, you will have to re-enable them.

Frequently Asked Questions

CAS is an authentication system used by UW web applications to verify your identity.

CAS is sanctioned by IST and is the recommended method for authenticating people.

A UW web application needs to authenticate you, perhaps to provide you with, or request from you, personalized or private information. The UW web application will send you to CAS in order to find out who you are. CAS will accept your userid and password and check it against WatIAM. When WatIAM has verified that your userid and password are correct, it tells CAS, and CAS tells the UW web application who you are.

See the documentation on CAS client authentication.

At all times prior to and during the authenticated web session, CAS is the only service that is handling your WatIAM userid and password. There is no risk of any web application being hacked or manipulated to give up your password.