Edge Authentication and Token-Agnostic Identity Propagation

blog-post

Abstract

As most developers can attest, dealing with security protocols and identity tokens, as well as user and device authentication, can be challenging. Imagine having multiple protocols, multiple tokens, 200M+ users, and thousands of device types, and the problem can explode in scope. A few years ago, we decided to address this complexity by spinning up a new initiative, and eventually a new team, to move the complex handling of user and device authentication, and various security protocols and tokens, to the edge of the network, managed by a set of centralized services, and a single team. In the process, we changed end-to-end identity propagation within the network of services to use a cryptographically-verifiable token-agnostic identity object.

Read on to learn more about this journey and how we have been able to:

- Reduce complexity for service owners, who no longer need to have knowledge of and responsibility for terminating security protocols and dealing with myriad security tokens,

- Improve security by delegating token management to services and teams with expertise in this area, and

- Improve audit-ability and forensic analysis.

(Netflix Tech Blog, accessed 30 May 2021)

Links

• Netflix Tech Blog

Citation

Casella, K., Nelson, T., Singh, S., 2021. Edge Authentication and Token-Agnostic Identity Propagation. The Netflix Tech Blog. URL https://netflixtechblog.com/edge-authentication-and-token-agnostic-identity-propagation-514e47e0b602 (accessed 5.30.21).