Glossary Terms: S

SSH Key

Identity types

Secure Shell (SSH) keys are cryptographic keys used for secure remote access to machines or systems, providing authentication and encryption for communication.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

IAM concepts

A mechanism that allows users to authenticate once and gain access to multiple systems or services without needing to re-authenticate. SSO enhances user experience and productivity while reducing the burden of managing multiple sets of credentials.

Syncing

IT concepts

The process of synchronizing data between multiple devices or platforms to ensure consistency and accessibility. Password managers often support syncing to enable users to access their passwords and sensitive information across different devices and environments.

Secretless

IAM concepts

A secretless architecture refers to systems where applications and services authenticate and communicate without the need to manage secrets directly (e.g., passwords, tokens, or API keys). Instead, they rely on dynamically generated, just-in-time mechanisms for identity or access.

Security Token Service (STS)

IAM concepts

STS (such as AWS Security Token Service) is a cloud service that provides temporary, limited-privilege credentials for authenticated users or workloads. These tokens allow access to resources for a specific duration, reducing the need for long-term credentials and improving security.

Service Account Token

Identity types

A service account token is a credential used by service accounts (non-human identities) to authenticate with systems and services. These tokens are often used by applications or services running in environments like Kubernetes to access resources without human interaction.

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IT concepts

SDLC is a structured process for developing software, consisting of phases such as planning, designing, coding, testing, deploying, and maintaining. In IAM, the SDLC is critical for ensuring that identity and access controls are built securely into software products throughout their development.

Software Development Kit (SDK)

IT concepts

An SDK is a set of tools, libraries, and documentation that enables developers to build software applications for specific platforms or services. In IAM, SDKs are often provided by IAM solutions or cloud providers to allow seamless integration of identity and access management functionality into applications.

SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone)

IAM concepts

SPIFFE is an open-source framework for providing secure, cryptographic identities to services and workloads in dynamic, distributed systems like microservices. It defines standards for identity creation, verification, and lifecycle management across different cloud and infrastructure environments.

SPIRE (SPIFFE Runtime Environment)

IAM concepts

SPIRE is the production-grade implementation of the SPIFFE specification. It is a system that manages, issues, and verifies SPIFFE identities across distributed systems, ensuring workloads are properly authenticated within microservices environments.