Credentialdriven

Credentialdriven is a term used to describe design and policy approaches in which decisions about identity, access, or workflow routing are determined primarily by the credentials an entity presents. It emphasizes the trust and claims embedded in credentials rather than fixed roles or external signals alone.

In practice, credentialdriven systems rely on issuing, presenting, verifying, and revoking credentials. These credentials can be traditional (usernames/passwords, API keys, client certificates) or modern verifiable credentials that encode identity attributes or attested claims. When a request is made, a verifier checks the credential's validity, freshness, and, where applicable, revocation status, and then enforces policies such as ABAC or RBAC accordingly.

The concept is commonly associated with identity and access management and with zero-trust architectures, enabling cross-domain trust through standardized credential formats and verifiable proofs. It supports interoperability and more granular access decisions, including selective disclosure of attributes.

Challenges include protecting credential lifecycles, preventing credential theft, managing revocation at scale, and ensuring interoperable standards across providers. Privacy considerations arise when credentials reveal attributes; design often seeks to minimize data exposure.

Examples: API gateways validating OAuth 2.0 access tokens, mutual TLS with client certificates, and systems using verifiable credentials to attest user attributes or device health for access decisions.

See also: verifiable credentials, decentralized identity, identity and access management, attribute-based access control, zero-trust.