Glossary Terms: S

Service Provider (SP)

IAM Concepts

A system, application, or service that relies on an identity provider for authentication and authorization. Service providers accept identity tokens or assertions from the IdP to grant access to their resources or functionalities.

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.

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.

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 standard that defines how workloads in dynamic, distributed environments prove their identity without relying on static secrets or network location. It specifies a universal identity format called a SVID and a set of APIs for issuing and validating those identities. For teams building secretless workload access, SPIFFE provides the identity foundation that makes cryptographic attestation practical at scale.

SPIRE (SPIFFE Runtime Environment)

IAM Concepts

SPIRE is the production-grade, open-source implementation of the SPIFFE specification. It handles the full lifecycle of workload identity: attesting workload authenticity, issuing SVIDs, rotating credentials automatically, and federating trust across environments. Where SPIFFE defines the standard, SPIRE does the operational work. Organizations use SPIRE as the identity infrastructure layer that enables secretless, policy-driven workload access across Kubernetes, VMs, and multi-cloud environments.