[Term of the Day]: OAuth

Term of the Day

“Open AUTHorization”

Definition — What is OAuth?

It is a standard that applications can use to provide client applications with “secure delegated access”. It works over HTTPS and authorizes devices, APIs, servers, and applications with access tokens rather than credentials.

With OAuth, resource owners can configure separate permissions for each client requesting access to the same resource and modify/revoke access at any point of time.

There are two versions of OAuth: OAuth 1.0a and OAuth 2.0. These specifications are completely different from one another, and cannot be used together: there is no backward compatibility between them.

Of late, OAuth 2.0 is the most widely used form of OAuth. So from now on, whenever someone says "OAuth", they are most likely talking about OAuth 2.0.

Check this article to learn more about OAuth.