33 Authentication
Security is one of the most important IT topics in today's world. And that's a good thing. User authentication is a key issue here.
One part of security is, of course, secure programming; you can read more about this in Chapter 32. But this chapter is about a task that developers also often face: identifying users on a website and giving them authorization.
Note
The terms authentication and authorization are sometimes used interchangeably. By definition, this is not correct: authentication is about recognizing the user; authorization is about granting the user rights. On the web, this is usually one step: the user logs in and thus gains access. However, authorization can also involve assigning rights, such as within a role ...
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