GP.Authentication+Authorization

This Pattern helps to secure IT facilities and applications by validating digital identities and permissions. In effect, this Pattern carries out some of the automated parts of the Authentication and Authorization process - note that many steps in this process are not automated, but are carried out by human beings. Authentication is done when someone wants to make sure - to a certain extend - that a claim that a subject makes on a digital identity is true. A special form of authentication is identification, which is a check that finds a match between a subject and a digital identity. Authorization is the process of granting rights to a subject to use a certain resource; the exercising of these rights is then subject to validation, which can be carried out automatically.

When it comes down to the use of automated systems and data, a process is needed to check if someone is entitled to this use. This means that records are made of authorizations (permissions), that need to be validated if someone is issuing rights (Permission Validation). To identify a digital user as a real world person or system, the digital identity (a digital representation of the real world identity) claim is validated by means of comparing one or more credentials that are provided during the validation with credentials that were stored earlier when the digital identity was created and administered (e.g. password hashes, biometric hashes, tokens, certificates). Thus, the Identity Validation function is an automated rematch of the real identity with the digital identity of a user. The Permission Validation function is an automated check whether a user has the right permissions to use a certain resource or data

Further notices
It is a good practice to limit digital identities to natural persons and discrete systems. If this is the case, then the validation of such digital identities (and the logs thereof) has meaning in a legal context. This is of particular importance for the process of Auditing.