What is OAuth and OpenID Connect?

D1 ยท General  ยท  CompTIA Security+ SY0-701
OAuth 2.0 is an authorization framework that allows a third-party application to access a user's resources (on another service) without sharing credentials. It grants limited access tokens.

OpenID Connect (OIDC) is an identity layer built on top of OAuth 2.0 that adds authentication โ€” it tells the application who the user is via an ID token (JWT).

Example: "Sign in with Google" uses OIDC for authentication and OAuth for authorization (e.g., accessing your Google Drive).
OAuth = authorization ("what can this app do?"). OIDC = authentication ("who is this user?"). SAML is older/enterprise XML-based. OAuth/OIDC are modern/API-friendly JSON-based. All three enable SSO/federation.
โ† Back to Glossary Practice Questions โ†’