Identity authentication is the process of verifying users’ validity. Unlike classical key-based authentications, which are built on noiseless channels, this paper introduces a general analysis and design framework for identity authentication over noisy channels. Specifically, the authentication scenarios of single time and multiple times are investigated. For each scenario, the lower bound on the opponent’s success probability is derived, and it is smaller than the classical identity authentication’s. In addition, it can remain the same, even if the secret key is reused. Remarkably, the Cartesian authentication code proves to be helpful for hiding the secret key to maximize the secrecy performance. Finally, we show a potential application of this authentication technique.