What is an identity provider (IdP)?

What does an identity provider do?

An identity provider stores and manages user accounts. It verifies the identity of each user at sign in. It gives an application a trusted answer about the user. This lets many applications rely on one identity provider.

• —It verifies a user at sign in.
• —It confirms the user identity to an application.
• —It manages user accounts in one place.
• —It writes each sign in to the audit log.

How does an identity provider work?

An identity provider follows a clear set of steps. It uses open standards to pass a signed token to an application.

• —A user opens an application.
• —The application sends the user to the identity provider.
• —The identity provider verifies the user identity.
• —The identity provider returns a signed token.
• —The application reads the token and grants access.

What standards does an identity provider use?

Most identity providers use open standards. These standards let different systems work together without custom code. Each standard covers a different task.

• —OpenID Connect (OIDC) confirms who the user is.
• —OAuth 2.0 grants access to protected resources.
• —SAML 2.0 passes identity between enterprise systems.
• —SCIM 2.0 creates and updates user accounts.
• —CIBA starts a sign in over a backchannel.

How does SenseCrypt work as an identity provider?

SenseCrypt is a passwordless identity provider (IdP) from Seventh Sense. Seventh Sense is a Singapore deep-tech company. A user enrolls from a photo on file. The user then signs in by face.

Face matching runs on-device. SenseCrypt stores no biometric data on the server. The face login is phishing-resistant. A user enters no password and no shared code at sign-in.

• —It supports OIDC, OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and PAR, SAML 2.0, SCIM 2.0, and CIBA.
• —It gives RBAC, multi-tenant isolation, and audit logs.
• —Its liveness detection holds iBeta ISO 30107-3 certification (Level 1 and Level 2).
• —Its face recognition is evaluated in the NIST FRTE.