OAuth 2.0

What is OAuth

OAuth (Open Authorization) is, simply put, an authorization mechanism. When a third-party application wants to access a system's data, the data owner informs the system to grant the third-party application permission to obtain that data. The system then generates a short-term access token (Token) to replace a password, which is provided to the third party for use.

Advantages of OAuth

When an application requests a resource server to access customer data, without OAuth, the resource server cannot distinguish whether a third-party application is malicious or not, and data could be accessed by anyone. The existence of OAuth ensures the security of user resources on the server side, prevents clients from handling user passwords, and allows for more centralized server maintenance. Customers can also enjoy different levels of trust.

OAuth Illustrated