KEY CONCEPTS RELATED TO Workload iam

Non-Human Identity Terms: A to Z Glossary

Looking for a straightforward rundown of non-human workload IAM-related terms, from the basic to the advanced? You’re in the right place. We’ve compiled a glossary that covers everything related to secure systems design, identity management, and data protection – from “A”ccess control to “Z”ero Trust.

Whether you’re looking to mature your workload IAM strategy or just need a quick reference or refresher, this glossary is here to make sure you have the precise terminology at your fingertips.

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Secret Versioning

IAM concepts

The practice of maintaining multiple versions of secrets to facilitate rollback, auditing, and compliance requirements. Secrets managers often support versioning to track changes over time and ensure that previous versions of secrets remain accessible when needed.

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.

Secrets Manager

IAM concepts

A centralized service or tool used to securely store, manage, and distribute sensitive information, such as passwords, API keys, cryptographic keys, and other credentials. Secrets managers help organizations improve security by reducing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.

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.

Self-RAG

AI/MCP Concepts

An advanced RAG method where the LLM itself generates specialized retrieval queries and critically evaluates the quality of the retrieved documents, refining its own generation process autonomously.

Service Account

Identity types

An identity used by applications or services to authenticate and authorize their interactions with other services, resources, or APIs. Service accounts are often used in automated processes and workflows.

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.

Service Identity

Identity types

A unique identifier assigned to a service or application workload, typically associated with access control policies and permissions within a computing environment. Service identities enable secure communication and interaction between different components of a system.

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.

Service-to-Service Authentication

Security concepts

Authentication mechanism used between services or applications to establish trust and securely exchange information without human involvement. Service-to-service authentication often relies on cryptographic protocols, such as OAuth 2.0, to authenticate and authorize interactions.