IAM concepts

Identity and Access Management (IAM) concepts cover the policies, processes, and tools used to manage digital identities and regulate user access to resources. Key IAM principles include authentication, authorization, provisioning, and least privilege. Effective IAM ensures that the right users have the right access at the right time.

Categories:

Identity Broker

IAM concepts

An Identity Broker is an intermediary security service that facilitates federated authentication and authorization between external identity providers and internal service providers, validating identity assertions and translating them into short-lived access tokens or credentials for workload authentication across organizational and security domain boundaries.

Dynamic Secrets

IAM concepts

Dynamic secrets are temporary passwords or keys that your systems generate on-demand every time a program requests access. Unlike static secrets (which persist until someone manually changes them), dynamic secrets have a limited lifespan and automatically expire after use. This significantly reduces the risk of exposure if they are ever compromised.

Authorization

IAM concepts

Authorization is the process of verifying whether a previously authenticated identity (user, machine, or agent) is allowed to perform a specific action or access a particular resource.

Authentication

IAM concepts

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user, machine, or application attempting to access a system or resource. It ensures that each access request originates from a legitimate, trusted entity before authorization and policy enforcement take place.

Attestation

IAM concepts

Attestation is simply a digital way to verify a piece of software (a workload) is trustworthy and truly is who it claims to be. It’s a security process that provides proof of authenticity using signed, digital evidence. This proof eliminates the need for old-fashioned passwords or static keys. Think of it as a digital passport check: instead of just trusting that an application is what it says it is, attestation forces it to prove its identity using verifiable, tamper-proof measurements.

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication

IAM concepts

Communication between non-human entities, such as machines, devices, or applications, without direct human intervention. M2M communication often relies on secure authentication and authorization mechanisms to ensure data privacy and integrity.

OpenID Connect

IAM concepts

An identity layer built on top of OAuth 2.0 that provides authentication services for web and mobile applications. OpenID Connect allows clients to verify the identity of end-users based on the authentication performed by an authorization server, providing user information as JWTs. It also enables federated identity management by allowing clients to verify user identity based on tokens issued by an identity provider.

Password Generator

IAM concepts

A tool provided by password managers to create strong, randomized passwords that are difficult to guess or crack. Password generators typically allow users to specify criteria such as length, character types, and special symbols to customize generated passwords.

Key Rotation

IAM concepts

The process of regularly changing cryptographic keys or credentials to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and improve security. Secrets managers often automate key rotation to ensure that secrets are regularly updated without disrupting applications or services.

Password Manager

IAM concepts

A software tool or service designed to securely store, manage, and retrieve passwords and other sensitive information, such as usernames, credit card numbers, and notes. Password managers often encrypt data using strong cryptographic algorithms to protect against unauthorized access.