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SSO vs SSL: Does SSO work over SSL?

Blog post from WorkOS

Post Details
Company
Date Published
Author
-
Word Count
1,546
Language
English
Hacker News Points
-
Summary

Single Sign-On (SSO) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) are two distinct technologies with different purposes. SSO simplifies login processes by allowing users access to multiple systems with just one set of credentials, while SSL encrypts data transmitted over the internet. Although these protocols function differently, they both involve transmitting data between the user's browser, an identity provider (IdP), and a target app or site. SSL is generally used in this process to secure the data shared between the IdP, applications, and user for security and privacy. SSO does not use SSL/TLS for authentication; instead, it uses protocols like SAML, OpenID Connect (OIDC), and WS-Fed that specify how to pass information securely between a service provider (SP) and an identity provider.