Difference between JWT, OAuth, and SAML for Authentication
JWT, OAuth, and SAML are different technologies used in authentication and authorization, each serving specific purposes and use cases. Let’s discuss each one:
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- JWT (JSON Web Tokens): JWT is a standard (RFC-7519) for representing claims securely between two parties. It’s not an authentication protocol but is commonly used for authentication. JWTs can be signed using a secret (with HMAC algorithm) or a public/private key pair using RSA or ECDSA.
In the context of authentication, once the user logs in, the server creates a JWT token for the client. This token consists of encoded JSON data, including the issuer of the token, the expiration timestamp, and the claims or payload. The server signs this token, sends it back to the client, and the client sends this JWT in the Authorization header for each subsequent request. The server verifies the signature and if it’s valid, it considers the user authenticated.
2. OAuth: OAuth is an authorization protocol that enables a third-party application to obtain limited access to an HTTP service, either on behalf of a resource owner or by allowing the third-party application to obtain access on its own behalf.
OAuth 2.0 is not specifically designed for authentication but provides several flows…