Identity platforms & tools
Federation
Federation is the practice of delegating authentication and authorization decisions to a trusted external identity provider instead of managing credentials locally. It allows users to access multiple applications using a single set of credentials, verified by a single trusted authority.
What Teams Run Into
Auditing becomes fragmented. Logs live in the IdP and in each application separately. Correlating a user's actions across multiple systems requires stitching data from incompatible systems.
Deprovisioning at the IdP doesn't instantly block access everywhere. Legacy apps don't check for revocation, and cached tokens keep working for hours after a user is terminated.
Trust boundaries get blurry. Applications become passive: they accept whatever the IdP asserts without validating whether that assertion still reflects current policy.
Why It Matters
Federation trades operational simplicity for architectural risk. When you federate, you are betting your access control on the integrity of a remote system. Every federated application becomes dependent on that IdP's availability, security, and trustworthiness. A single compromised IdP can unlock access across your entire federated ecosystem.
See Also
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