OAuth 2.0: A Secure and Standardized Way to Access Web Resources

OAuth 2.0 stands for ‘Open Standard Authorization’, a standardized protocol to allow a website to access resources hosted by other web applications in place of the user. The OAuth 2.0 provides consent to access and restricts actions to third-party users, securing passwords and login user credentials.
The website is the main hub for OAuth 2.0, as the specification describes user interaction with third-party applications asking for access to personal information. If you implement OAuth 2.0 Authentication, you can protect access to private information within third-party browser-based applications, mobile applications, server-side web applications, connected devices, and others.
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OAuth 2.0 Principle and Roles

OAuth 2.0 is an authorization protocol and is designed to grant access to a set of resources, such as user data or specific remote APIs. The OAuth 2.0 revolves around ‘Access Tokens’. The access token represents authorization to access resources on behalf of the actual user.
There are roles as core specifications of the OAuth 2.0 authorization framework; the essential factors are as mentioned as follows:
Resource Server
Resource Owner

The user that owns protected resources for which OAuth 2.0 grants ‘Access Tokens’ to the clients.

Client

The client is the system that requires access to protected resources. An ‘Access Token’ is compulsory for clients to access resources.

Authorization Server
Authorization Server

The authorization server receives client requests for access tokens and restricts access until successful authentication by the resource owner.

Resurce Owner
Resource Server

A resource server protects the user’s resources and receives requests from clients for validation. Once the authentication is done, an access token is provided by the client, and the server returns the requested resources to the client.

How Does OAuth 2.0 Work?

OAuth 2.0 is the standardized industry protocol for authorization, focused on client developers, and works on the authentication scenarios called ‘Flows’. These flows allow users to share the content securely by sharing their credentials. The OAuth 2.0 server issues access tokens to the client application, which gets to access protected resources on behalf of the resource owner.

OmniDefend implements the OAuth 2.0 Authentication protocol, and OmniDefend can be used to perform SSO with applications supporting the protocol. If a new application is being developed, the developer can implement OmniDefend authentication along with the OAuth 2.0 protocol to ensure user security of data and credentials.