Glossary

Terms and definitions for Sensedia Access Control

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Term	Definition
Access Token	Tokens that contain security credentials with information identifying the client, user (or group of users), and their privileges. The token bearer has authorization to access that API's data.
Authentication	Process of confirming an entity's identity (e.g., user), based on some type of proof or validation. This sign-in process verifies the identity of the entity requesting access to a website or web service. Entities can be people or an agent representing an API request.
Authorization	Process of granting or denying permission for an entity (e.g., user) to access a resource or service or to perform an action.
Authorization Server	Server that enforces access policies, issuing Access Tokens to the client application (e.g., web application), after obtaining authorization from the Resource Owner (e.g., user).

Term	Definition
CORS	CORS (Cross-origin resource sharing) is a mechanism that allows a server to indicate any origins (domain, scheme, or port) other than its own from which a browser should allow loading of restricted resources. Web pages can thus embed resources (images, stylesheets, scripts, iframes, and videos) from a server in another domain (another origin).

Term	Definition
Endpoint	The URLs used when Service Providers and Identity Providers communicate.
Entity ID	A unique identifier used to represent an entity, such as Identity Providers or Service Providers. Also called Identity Provider Issuer in Okta applications.

Term	Definition
Federated Identity	Identification that allows a user to have their attributes stored across multiple distinct platforms (identity management systems). This enables users from one domain to securely access data from other domains without redundancy in user administration. Some technologies used by Federated identity: SAML, OAuth, OpenID, Security Tokens, among others.
Federated Login	Process that unifies login (access and user management) through federated identities.

Term	Definition
Identity and Access Management (IAM)	Deals with authentication, authorization, and access control to determine which resources users (or groups of users) can access and which roles they can execute.
Identity Provider (IdP)	Service that manages user accounts, validating a user's identity in a federated system. The Service Provider obtains the user's identity through the IdP.

Term	Definition
LDAP	LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a protocol that interacts with directory servers and allows applications to perform searches quickly. LDAP enables users to authenticate only once and access different server files.

Term	Definition
Metadata	A set of information provided by the IdP to the SP, or vice versa, in XML format.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)	Method that verifies the identity of the user performing a sign-in. Access is granted only after the user has been authenticated by at least two different mechanisms, for example: access password and code generated by an application.

Term	Definition
NameID	Indicates how users in an identity provider are mapped to users in service providers during a Single Sign-on process.

Term	Definition
OAuth 2.0	OAuth (Open Authorization) is a standard online authorization protocol that allows an application or website to authenticate to another on behalf of a user. Access is limited and credentials are not exposed.
OpenID Connect (OIDC)	An authorization protocol based on OAuth 2.0. OpenID Connect uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorization and then creates and assigns unique identities for each user.

Term	Definition
Resource Owner	Entity capable of providing access to a restricted resource.
Resource Server	Server that hosts restricted resources. Handles authentication requests from an application that has an access token.
Roles	Allow controlling user permissions and managing access according to your company's security needs and policies.

Term	Definition
SAML	Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is a protocol used to integrate authentication and authorization functions between multiple systems. It enables Single Sign-On in browsers.
Service Provider (SP)	SAML Service Provider is the resource or service (application) that the user wants to access.
Single Sign-On	Authentication scheme that allows a user to log in to multiple independent systems using a single ID and password. This is usually enabled by LDAP.

Term	Definition
Teams	Allow creating and managing user teams for Sensedia products.