In your development journey, you might have often heard of these words/terms authentication and authorization. It might often sound similar but it is used for different processes to protect the company's system from attacks.
Due to the increase in cyber-attacks and data leaks, it is good to understand these concepts and implement better security solutions to protect the system.
We will understand authentication vs. authorization and the difference between them, let's understand it.
What is Authentication?
Authentication is the process of identifying a user's identity by assuring that the person is the same as what he is claiming.
Different Ways to Authenticate:-
Password-based authentication
In this process, the user provides credentials and It verifies those credentials from the backend. If verification is successful then the user gets the access else access is denied.
2FA/MFA
In this process, an extra layer of protection is enabled that requires authentication from 2 or more ways, like username and password then some token or code from SMS.
There are other ways to authenticate like Single Sign-on(SSO), Passwordless Authentication etc.
What is Authorization?
Authorization is the process of giving some privileges to do certain tasks or access certain areas of applications resource.
Different Ways to Authorization:-
Role-based access control
RBAC or Role-based access control method gives access to information based on their role/profile.
There are other ways to authenticate like Oauth, SAML etc.
Difference between Authentication vs. Authorization
In simple terms, authentication is the process of verifying the identity of the user, whereas authorization is the process of verifying what specific applications, files, and data a user has access to. Lets us understand the difference between them:
Authentication | Authorization |
Authentication identifies whether the user is valid or not. | Authorization is the process of permitting users to access resources. |
It requires the login details of the user, such as username & password, etc. | It requires the user's privileges that are maintained by the organization. |
It's the first step of a identity and access management process. | It is usually done once the user is successfully authenticated. |
It is managed by the user. | It is managed by the organization. |
Example: After giving login details you may access your Email account | Example: Once you logged in to Email, you might not have access to certain documents based on role. |
Conclusion
It is very important to follow the best practices to protect the organization's system and understanding the difference between authentication vs authorization can make a great difference. These often work together to enhance security and add an extra layer of protection.
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