authenticatieservice

An authenticatieservice is a component of identity and access management that verifies the claimed identity of users or services and issues credentials that allow access to protected resources. It centralizes authentication for multiple applications and services, often enabling single sign-on (SSO).

Typical inputs include user credentials, biometric data, device signals, or assertions from external identity providers. The service authenticates the subject and issues tokens (such as OAuth access tokens or OpenID Connect ID tokens) or session cookies that applications can present to prove identity. It may also support passwordless methods and multi-factor authentication.

Architectures include centralized identity providers (IdP) versus federated setups; on-premises, cloud-based IDaaS, or hybrid deployments. Applications integrate via standard protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, LDAP, or RADIUS. In microservices architectures, a gateway or service mesh enforces authentication with token validation; tokens are usually time-limited and revocable when needed.

Security and governance considerations include proper credential storage (hashing), MFA, device trust, token lifetimes, revocation, auditing, and anomaly detection. Privacy considerations and access control policies are important, as is ensuring interoperability across applications and domains. Common examples of authenticatieservices range from commercial identity providers to open-source solutions that support standard protocols and federation.