Glossary
The glossary below provides definitions and explanations of commonly used terms and features within the security and identity management domain. Explore each term to gain a deeper understanding of its functionality and relevance.
Client
Section titled “Client”A client is a piece of software that requests tokens from your IdentityServer - either for authenticating a user ( requesting an identity token) or for accessing a resource (requesting an access token). A client must be first registered with your IdentityServer before it can request tokens and is identified by a unique client ID.
There are many different client types, e.g. web applications, native mobile or desktop applications, SPAs, server processes, etc.
Automatic Key Management
Section titled “Automatic Key Management”License: Business
The automatic key management feature creates and manages key material for signing tokens and follows best practices for handling this key material, including storage and rotation.
Server-side Session Management
Section titled “Server-side Session Management”License: Business
The server-side session management feature extends the ASP.NET Core cookie authentication handler to maintain a user’s authentication session state in a server-side store, rather than putting it all into a self-contained cookie. Using server-side sessions enables more architectural features in your IdentityServer, such as:
- query and manage active user sessions (e.g. from an administrative app).
- detect session expiration and perform cleanup, both in IdentityServer and in client apps.
- centralize and monitor session activity in order to achieve a system-wide inactivity timeout.
BFF Security Framework
Section titled “BFF Security Framework”The Duende Backend For Frontend (BFF) security framework packages up guidance and the necessary components to secure browser-based frontends (e.g. SPAs or Blazor WASM applications) with ASP.NET Core backends.
Dynamic Client Registration
Section titled “Dynamic Client Registration”License: Business
Implementation of RFC 8707. Provides a standards-based endpoint to register clients and their configuration.
Pushed Authorization Requests
Section titled “Pushed Authorization Requests”License: Business
Implementation of RFC 9126. Provides a more secure way to start a browser-based token/authentication request.
Dynamic Authentication Providers
Section titled “Dynamic Authentication Providers”License: Enterprise
The dynamic configuration feature allows dynamic loading of configuration for OpenID Connect providers from a store. This is designed to address the performance concern and allowing changes to the configuration to a running server.
Resource Isolation
Section titled “Resource Isolation”License: Enterprise
The resource isolation feature allows a client to request access tokens for an individual resource server. This allows API-specific features such as access token encryption and isolation of APIs that are not in the same trust boundary.
Client-Initiated Backchannel Authentication (CIBA)
Section titled “Client-Initiated Backchannel Authentication (CIBA)”License: Enterprise
Duende IdentityServer supports the Client-Initiated Backchannel Authentication Flow (also known as CIBA). This allows a user to log in with a higher security device (e.g. their mobile phone) than the device on which they are using an application (e.g. a public kiosk). CIBA is one of the requirements to support the Financal-grade API compliance.
Proof-of-Possession At The Application Layer / DPoP
Section titled “Proof-of-Possession At The Application Layer / DPoP”License: Enterprise
A mechanism for sender-constraining OAuth 2.0 tokens via a proof-of-possession mechanism on the application level. This mechanism allows for the detection of replay attacks with access and refresh tokens.
Single Deployment
Section titled “Single Deployment”A single deployment acts as a single OpenID Connect / OAuth authority hosted at a single URL. It can consist of multiple physical or virtual nodes for load-balancing or fail-over purposes.
Multiple Deployment
Section titled “Multiple Deployment”Can be either completely independent single deployments, or a single deployment that acts as multiple authorities.
Multiple Authorities
Section titled “Multiple Authorities”A single logical deployment that acts as multiple logical token services on multiple URLs or host names (e.g. for branding, isolation or multi-tenancy reasons).
Standard Developer Support
Section titled “Standard Developer Support”Online developer community forum for Duende Software product issues and bugs.
Priority Developer Support
Section titled “Priority Developer Support”Helpdesk system with guaranteed response time for Duende Software product issues and bugs.