Learn the differences between authentication and authorization, and how to use them effectively to secure your web applications.
This checks if you are who you say you are, like logging in with a username and password.
This determines what you can do after you're authenticated, like accessing certain files or features.
Authentication comes first, ensuring you are you, followed by authorization, which allows or restricts your actions.
Think of authentication as getting a ticket to enter a concert and authorization as having a pass to access VIP areas.
Different users can have different authorizations, like admins having more access than regular users.
Authentication might use passwords, fingerprints, or facial recognition.
Authorization often involves setting permissions for files, databases, and other resources.
In APIs, authentication verifies the user or application, and authorization controls which endpoints can be accessed.
Authentication lets you log in once to access multiple applications, but authorization still controls what you can do in each one.
OAuth is a protocol that deals with both authentication (logging you in) and authorization (granting permissions to apps).
Both are essential for web security, keeping unauthorized users out and ensuring users can only access what they’re allowed.