Authorization is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something. In multi-user
computer systems, a system administrator defines for the system which users are allowed access to the system
and what privileges of use (such as access to which file directories, hours of access, amount of
allocated storage space, and so forth). Assuming that someone has logged in to a computer operating
system or application,
the system or application may want to identify what resources the user can be given during this
session. Thus, authorization is sometimes seen as both the preliminary setting up of permissions by
a system administrator and the actual checking of the permission values that have been set up when
a user is getting access.
Logically, authorization is preceded by authentication.
This was last updated in January 2006
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