Comparing Authentication and Authorization
This is a large and somewhat confusing topic in software engineering. It doesn't help that we often abbreviate both terms to "auth", so first an explanation in plain English: Authentication : Are you who you say you are. Authorization : What you are allowed to do. It is useful to have the above one-liners in mind when thinking about these terms. Authentication is the act of confirming a claim to be true, authentic, real, genuine. E.g. A person at airport claims to be Kye Yeung with a passport. The security guard authenticates this claim. Authorization is the act of giving permission to access resources. E.g. My nephew asks if he can play video games for an hour, I can authorize/give him permission to do so or not. This article will discuss a few popular internet security technologies but is by no means exhaustive. Basic HTTP Authentication Basic HTTP authentication , often abbreviated to "basic auth", is a protocol that requires client requests t...