Authorization is the process of determining whether a user or entity has the necessary privileges or permissions to access a particular resource or perform a particular action within a system or application.
Once a user or entity has been authenticated or identified, authorization comes into play to determine what level of access or actions they can perform within the system or application. This usually involves checking the user’s or entity’s access privileges against a set of defined rules and policies, which specify what actions a particular user or entity is allowed to perform based on their role, permissions or privileges.
The goal of authorization is to ensure that only authorized users or entities can access resources or perform actions that they are permitted to do. Authorization mechanisms typically operate alongside authentication processes to ensure that users or entities only have access to resources or actions that they are authorized to perform.
For example, a user may be authenticated with a username and password, but their authorization level may only allow them to view certain pages on a website, whereas an administrator user may have higher authorization levels that allow them to edit, delete, or change the website's content.
Authorization systems are critical for maintaining data security and privacy, as they prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data or resources, and ensure that users and entities are only given access to the resources they need to perform their tasks.