What is Auth?

Those of us who don’t spend our days writing code often think of logging in to an application as one simple, bundled process of declaring who we are with our user ID and password. Behind the scenes, there are actually two important, independent components at play: authentication and authorization. Together, they determine whether a given user is allowed to access information.

Authentication is what we typically think of when we imagine a login. This process answers the question, “Are you who you claim to be?” A user must prove their identity by entering a password. …