The invention discloses an authentication method and apparatus wherein the method comprises the following steps: sending by a terminal to the server of a target application an operation request carrying the terminal identification and the identity information; receiving the OpenURL returned by the server according to the terminal identification wherein the OpenURL carries the identity information after the server is encrypted; and based on the OpenURL and through the target application, obtaining the identity information; transmitting the obtained identity information and the encrypted identity information to the server so as to enable the server to carry out authentication according to the received identity information and the encrypted identity information. With the above method, a user could conduct user authentication by clicking the OpenURL to trigger the server. The operation steps of the method are simple and the authentication efficiency is high.