Backend engineering
Authentication and authorization solve different problems
Knowing who made a request does not tell you whether they may read or change a particular resource.
Aryan (@istmX)3 min read
Start with a clear boundary
Authentication establishes identity or a session. Protect credentials, define expiry behavior, and keep secrets out of URLs and logs.
Handle failure deliberately
Authorization checks whether this caller can perform this action on this resource. Enforce that at the server for every operation.
Make the result understandable
Use least privilege and log sensitive actions with enough context to investigate while avoiding unnecessary personal data.