Quick questions on Authentication and authorisation explained: HSC Software Engineering Module 1

3short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.

What is authentication?

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Authentication confirms a user's identity. It relies on one or more factors:

What is authorisation?

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Once a user is authenticated, authorisation governs which actions they can perform and which resources they can access. The two dominant models:

What is least privilege?

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Whichever model is used, the principle of least privilege says give each user only the permissions strictly needed for their role. A junior support agent does not need access to billing data. A read-only auditor never needs write permissions.

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