SSO

Identity and Federation: A Practical Guide for Developers Identity and federation sit at the heart of modern authentication and Single Sign-On (SSO). Whether you’re integrating with an enterprise IdP, adding social login, or securing APIs, understanding how identities flow across systems will save you time and prevent subtle security bugs. This article gives you a clear mental model, practical implementation tips, and code examples you can adapt today. Why identity and federation matter Users want one login across apps (SSO). Organizations need central policy, governance, and audit. Developers want to avoid storing passwords and reinventing auth. Security depends on well-understood trust boundaries and token handling. Identity federation lets one domain (the Identity Provider, or IdP) authenticate a user, then assert that identity to another domain (the Service Provider/Relying Party) using standard protocols and signed tokens. ...