A principal in

computer security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...

is an entity that can be authenticated by a

computer system A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', wh ...

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

. It is referred to as a security principal in

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

literature."What Are Security Principals?"
''docs.microsoft.com'', 19 April 2017. Principals can be individual people, computers, services, computational entities such as processes and threads, or any group of such things. They need to be identified and authenticated before they can be assigned rights and privileges over resources in the network. A principal typically has an associated identifier (such as a

security identifier Security Identifier (SID) is a unique, Immutable object, immutable identifier of a user account, user group, or other security principal in the Windows NT family of operating systems. A security principal has a single SID for life (in a given Windo ...

) that allows it to be referenced for identification or assignment of properties and permissions. A principal often becomes synonymous with the credentials used to act as that principal, such as a password or (for service principals) an access token or other secrets.

References

External links

* - ''Generic Security Service API Version 2''. * - ''WebDAV Current Principal Extension''. * - ''The Kerberos Version 5 Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API) Mechanism: Version 2''. Computing terminology {{comp-sci-stub Cybersecurity engineering