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SSO (Single Sign-On)

SFBy Sitraka Forler · Lecturer, Durham Business School·Updated 13 September 2026· About this site

Sign in once through an identity provider and get into many work apps.

An identity provider such as Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) or Okta checks who you are once, then vouches for you to each app through a standard such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) or OpenID Connect. IT gets one account to disable when someone leaves. The flip side: one stolen login unlocks everything, so pair SSO with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

# OpenID Connect providers publish their settings at a well-known URL
curl https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration
# The JSON reply includes authorization_endpoint (the page where you sign in)
# and jwks_uri (where apps fetch the public keys that check a login is genuine)