Hack the Route Start free Open app Identity and access
Authentication and authorization
Authentication proves who is asking; authorization decides what that identity may do.
Two separate questions, often answered by separate systems. Authentication (authn) checks a claim of identity: a password, a ticket, a certificate, a code from a phone. Authorization (authz) then looks the proven identity up in a policy: which VLAN, which servers, which pages. A login that succeeds can still be refused access, and a network location (being on the office LAN) proves neither. RADIUS adds a third A, accounting: recording who used what.