OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard protocol that allows secure authorization of third-party applications to access user resources without sharing the user's credentials. It works by delegating user authentication to the service that hosts the user account and authorizing third-party applications to access that user account. For example, when you use your Google account to log into a third-party application, OAuth is at work. The protocol defines several roles: the user, the resource owner (often the same as the user), the client (the third-party application), the authorization server, and the resource server. OAuth enables scenarios like allowing a printing service to access photos from a user's Google Drive without giving the service the user's Google password. This protocol is widely used in modern web and mobile applications to provide secure, standardized authorization flows.
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Learn more about Nudge Security's approach to OAuth Risk Management →
