Justin Richer, OAuth expert at Authlete, discusses OAuth's history, delegation protocol, and Authlete API. Topics include OAuth's relationship with OpenID Connect, advantages of scoped access, and implementing OAuth in financial services. The episode explores the innovative approach of off-lead services, explains OAuth through an airline analogy, and emphasizes the importance of standards in product development.
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Quick takeaways
OAuth enables secure access delegation without password sharing.
OpenID Connect enhances authentication on popular platforms like Google and Facebook.
Authlete provides APIs for implementing OAuth servers and OpenID Connect identity providers.
Deep dives
OAuth and OpenID Connect Overview
OAuth is a delegation protocol that allows users to grant access to their information without revealing passwords. OpenID Connect serves as an identity layer built on OAuth. These protocols are commonly used for authentication on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Spotify. OAuth Lead provides APIs to implement OAuth authorization servers and OpenID Connect identity providers.
The Evolution from Collaboration Systems to OAuth
Justin Richard, the principal architect at OAuth Lead, shares his journey from working on collaboration systems to getting involved in security and internet standards development. He underscores the importance of balancing functionality and security. His background influenced his work on OAuth, focusing on enabling functionality while maintaining security measures.
OAuth 2.0: Enhancements and Benefits
OAuth 2.0 evolved from OAuth 1, addressing complexities in signature mechanisms and accommodating new technology trends like mobile apps and SPA. The protocol simplified interactions for client developers and introduced concepts like the scope parameter for specifying access levels. OpenID Connect complements OAuth by providing authentication capabilities, enhancing security and user experience.
OAuth in the Financial Sector
OAuth has found significant adoption in the financial sector, particularly in Japan, due to banks and financial institutions' reluctance to share sensitive client information. To implement secure systems, banks face the choice of expensive dedicated setups or in-house development with open-source applications. While open-source solutions offer flexibility, they require ongoing maintenance for critical security components. OAuthly provides a solution by enabling organizations to retain control over user accounts and authentication data while leveraging the interoperability provided by OAuth and OpenID Connect.
OAuthly Unique Positioning and Standards Compliance
OAuthly offers a unique semi-hosted system that bridges the gap between fully hosted solutions and self-managed implementations, catering to a wide range of organizations. The platform excels in advanced Federation and OAuth functionalities, allowing customers to implement high-security delegation and federated identity without the complexity of managing every aspect themselves. This approach ensures that users maintain ownership of the end-user experience and accounts, aligning with standards compliance and interoperability, a core focus of OAuthly's culture and product development.
OAuth is an open standard for access delegation. It lets users grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites, but without giving away passwords.
OpenID Connect is an identity layer on top of OAuth. Even if you haven’t programmed using OAuth and OpenID Connect, you’ve certainly used them for authentication on Google, Facebook, Spotify, and countless other services.
Authlete is a service that provides a set of APIs to implement OAuth authorization servers, and OpenID Connect identity providers.
Justin Richer is the Principal Architect at Authlete and is part of the working group that developed OAuth 2.0. He joins the podcast to talk about the history of OAuth, OAuth as a delegation protocol, the Authlete API, and much more.
Full Disclosure: This episode is sponsored by Authlete.
Gregor Vand is a security-focused technologist, and is the founder and CTO of Mailpass. Previously, Gregor was a CTO across cybersecurity, cyber insurance and general software engineering companies. He has been based in Asia Pacific for almost a decade and can be found via his profile at vand.hk.