What is the difference between authentication and authorization?

What is the difference between authentication and authorization?

Blog Article

Authentication is the process of verifying a user’s identity, typically through credentials like a username and password. It ensures that the user is who they claim to be. Common authentication methods include token-based authentication and OAuth.

Authorization, on the other hand, determines what actions a user is allowed to perform. It involves checking permissions and roles to ensure that the user has access to specific resources or features. For example, an admin user might have access to certain pages that regular users cannot view.

In full-stack development, both authentication and authorization are critical for securing applications. For instance, a Django backend might use Django REST Framework’s authentication classes to verify users and its permission classes to restrict access to certain views.