Principal (computer security)
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A principal in computer security is an entity that can be authenticated by a computer system or network. It is referred to as a security principal in Java and Microsoft literature.[1]
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Principals can be individual people, computers, services, computational entities such as processes and threads, or any group of such things.[1] 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) 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.[2]
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