OAuth 2.0 Concepts

Internal

• OAuth 2.0

Identity.

User's presence in the system - means that the user identity is associated with the thread that is processing the user's request, and in a way, it is the user that "drives" the thread. The identity is associated with the thread in the form of a security context.

There are software agents that perform actions on behalf of the user, and this is where OAuth is relevant - a user can delegate in a standard and secure way the authority of performing certain actions. Even the software agent (the OAuth client) operates under a different identity, it can still perform action on behalf of a user that may not be even logged in anymore. An example of such identity is an OpenShift service account.

Authentication.

Authentication protocols, single sign-on, SAML.

Authorization.