Authlete API Authorization

Identity and Access Management (IAM) underpins modern cybersecurity and spans a wide set of capabilities, including identity provisioning and repositories, authentication and authorization, web access management, federation/SSO, identity governance, reconciliation, and risk management. IAM is commonly grouped into Identity Management (lifecycle management and governance/IGA), Access Management (authentication, federation, authorization, and SSO), and Privileged Access Management (PAM) for privileged users and shared accounts, including password and session management.

Because many IAM components are standardized and commoditized, products typically interoperate through well-known standards such as SCIM (provisioning), LDAP (identity storage), Kerberos/RADIUS/PKI/FIDO/WebAuthn (authentication), OAuth/OIDC/SAML (federation), and JWT/UMA/XACML (authorization). Access Management must support both modern federation standards and legacy integration patterns (e.g., password injection or modified HTTPS headers). At the same time, there is growing demand to embed federation and authorization directly into custom-built digital services via developer-friendly platforms and APIs, especially in multi-tier architectures where apps consume APIs that in turn rely on backend services. Finance ecosystems such as Open Banking and PSD2 illustrate the multi-party complexity, where third-party apps may need access to bank backends.

Authlete targets this specific need by specializing in API authorization for OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect in complex, multi-party environments across industries (e.g., connected vehicles, eGovernment, pharma collaboration). It offloads OAuth/OIDC protocol operations and access-token lifecycle management to an Authlete backend service, allowing developers to focus on business logic. Authlete provides deployable OAuth/OIDC server implementations and libraries in multiple languages that communicate with Authlete via APIs, enabling integration with existing API gateways. A key architectural benefit is that customer IAM and directory integration remains on the customer side; Authlete manages issued tokens while UX and authorization flows remain highly configurable. Central management APIs and separate consoles for service owners and client developers support operations and onboarding.

• IAM commonly comprises Identity Management (IGA), Access Management, and Privileged Access Management (PAM).
• IAM standards mentioned include SCIM for provisioning and LDAP for user identity storage.
• Authentication standards listed include Kerberos, RADIUS, PKI/x.509 (including SmartCards), FIDO U2F/UAF/2.0, and W3C WebAuthn.
• Federation standards listed include OAuth, OpenID, OpenID Connect (OIDC), and SAML.
• Authorization technologies listed include JSON, JWT, UMA, and XACML, with OAuth and OIDC also used for authorization scenarios.
• Legacy web applications can integrate through password injection or by providing authentication information via modified HTTPS headers.
• Open Banking and PSD2 are cited as finance scenarios where third-party apps may require access to bank backend services.
• Authlete offloads OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocol operations and access-token lifecycle management to a dedicated backend service.
• Authlete provides OAuth/OIDC server implementations and libraries for Java, C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, and Deno.
• Authlete notes customer coverage with locations in Tokyo, Dubai, and London, and no location in the U.S./North America yet.

• “Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a foundational element of cybersecurity today.”
• “Many of the components of IAM have become standardized and even commoditized.”
• “Access Management, also referred to as Web Access Management & Identity Federation, as one of the major disciplines is focused on providing access for users to services.”
• “Integration can work either via standards for identity federation or – for legacy web applications that do not support modern identity federation standards – with methods such as password injection and providing authentication information as part of modified https headers.”
• “Implementing these capabilities in applications thus is challenging to developers.”
• “Authlete delivers a service that simplifies that complexity by off-loading OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocol operations as well as the related lifecycle management of access tokens to their dedicated service.”
• “The OAuth/OIDC server and the Authlete service again communicate via APIs.”
• “Only the access tokens issued are then managed by Authlete.”
• “The UX design, the flows such as for authentication and selecting the scopes, and other components can be configured in a highly flexible manner.”
• “Developers can focus on gathering parameters that then are provided to the Authlete service in the backend, which then cares for all the details.”