selfasserted

Self-asserted refers to a type of identity provider or a set of claims in which the user supplies the information themselves, rather than relying on an external authentication service to verify identity at the point of sign-in. In claims-based authentication systems, a self-asserted identity allows a user to present attributes such as name, email address, or other profile data directly to the relying party as part of the authentication or sign-up process. The claims may be included in the security token issued by the identity system, or stored as part of a user profile for later use.

Self-asserted providers are commonly used for lightweight sign-up and profile collection flows. They enable users to create accounts and provide basic attributes without immediate verification by a third-party identity provider. Because the data is user-provided, the assurance level is typically lower than that of federated or credentialed identities, and organizations may implement additional verification steps or risk-based checks as needed.

In modern cloud and enterprise identity platforms, self-asserted flows are often implemented as pages or forms that collect required attributes during onboarding. The resulting claims can be used to customize access policies, drive personalized experiences, or later be supplemented with stronger verification methods or external identities.

Security considerations include validating input, minimizing sensitive data exposed to clients, and balancing convenience with the necessary level of assurance. Self-asserted data should be treated as potentially unverified until additional checks are performed.