Context and Problem
Modern applications require seamless and secure authentication across multiple systems while avoiding duplicate credential management.
- Users have to remember multiple credentials for different applications.
- Security risks increase due to poor password management.
- Managing authentication across various services is complex.
- Lack of a unified user experience leads to frustration.
Solution
Federated Identity centralizes authentication, allowing users to access multiple services with a single identity.
- Use an identity provider (IdP) to manage authentication.
- Implement single sign-on (SSO) to authenticate users once across multiple services.
- Utilize industry-standard protocols like OAuth, OpenID Connect, and SAML.
- Secure user identities with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Enable role-based or attribute-based access control.
Benefits
- Improved user experience
- Users only need to authenticate once for multiple services.
- Centralized security
- Reduces password management risks.
- Scalability
- Supports authentication across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
- Compliance
- Enhances security by enforcing uniform authentication policies.
Trade-offs
- Dependency on identity provider
- Service availability depends on the IdP.
- Complexity
- Requires integration with authentication protocols.
- Single point of failure
- If the IdP is compromised, multiple services may be affected.
Issues and Considerations
- Token expiration
- Handling session management and token renewals.
- User provisioning
- Synchronizing users across multiple services.
- Authorization enforcement
- Implementing granular access control.
When to Use This Pattern
- When managing authentication across multiple services.
- When implementing single sign-on (SSO).
- When needing centralized identity management.