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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

Authorization

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˌɔːθərəˈzeɪʃn/nounCommon term

In software engineering, authorization means: The process of checking what an identified user or app is allowed to do, for example whether they can read a file or delete an account.

In Turkish: yetkilendirme, yetki kontrolü

How it is used

Often confused with authentication, which asks 'Who are you?', while authorization asks 'What are you allowed to do?'. Shortened to authz (and authentication to authn). An HTTP 403 Forbidden response usually means authorization failed. British English also writes 'authorisation'.

Example sentences

  1. The user is logged in, but the authorization check stops them from seeing other teams' reports.

  2. We moved all authorization rules into one service so they're easier to audit.

Common collocations

  • authorization check
  • role-based authorization
  • Authorization header
  • authorization rules
  • authenticationThe process of checking who a user or system is, for example with a password, a token or a fingerprint, before giving access.
  • tokenA string of characters that proves a user or app has already logged in or has permission. It is sent with each request instead of a password.
  • API keyA unique secret code that a program sends with its requests so that the API can identify who is calling and decide what they are allowed to do.
  • status codeA three-digit number in an HTTP response that tells the client what happened, such as 200 for success, 404 for not found or 500 for a server error.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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