Which A Is It? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

AAA stands for authentication, authorization and accounting. Authentication verifies identity: a username says who you claim to be, and a password, a code from an app, a certificate or a key proves it. Authorization decides what that verified identity may access: which share, which VLAN, which commands, which bucket. Accounting records what it did: sign-ins, sessions, commands, changes and deletions, so someone can audit them later. AAA started as protocols. When a laptop joins Wi-Fi, the access point asks a directory service to check the user, over RADIUS, TACACS+ or Diameter. Those servers do all three jobs: RADIUS can verify a password, tell the switch which VLAN to use and log the session's start and stop. So never sort by the product. Ask what the step does: prove identity, grant or refuse access, or keep a record. IAM in cloud services covers the same ground under the names identity and access, and the CISSP version adds identification and auditing.

What you'll learn

Identify which part of the AAA model a mechanism performs: authentication (verifying identity), authorization (deciding what an identity may access) or accounting (recording what it did)
Recognise that one AAA protocol or service, such as RADIUS or TACACS+, can carry all three functions, so the function is decided by what the step does, not by which product does it

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

1.2 Summarize fundamental security concepts.

4.6 Given a scenario, implement and maintain identity and access management.

Key terms

Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user, device, or system.
Authorization: The process of determining what actions or resources an authenticated user is permitted to access.
Accounting: The tracking and logging of user activity, resource access, and system changes on a network for auditing and oversight purposes.
Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting: Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting is a security framework that controls network access by verifying user identity, determining permitted actions, and logging activity for auditing and billing purposes.
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service: RADIUS is a client-server networking protocol that provides centralized authentication, authorization, and accounting management for users connecting to network access points or VPN services.
Identity and Access Management: A framework of policies and technologies that ensures the right users have appropriate access to resources.

Topics

Aaa Authentication Authorization Accounting Radius Tacacs Interactive Categorize

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