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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Foundational

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Allowing a user to authenticate once and access multiple applications without signing in again.

Definition

SSO improves usability and centralizes authentication policy, MFA, and logging at an identity provider. It is implemented with Kerberos internally and with SAML, OpenID Connect, or WS-Federation for web apps. The drawback is that a compromised SSO account grants access to all connected apps, so strong MFA is essential.

Example

An employee signs in to Okta once and opens Salesforce, Slack, and Workday without further logins.

Exam tip

SSO's risk is a single point of compromise; pair it with MFA.

Don't confuse it with

Related terms