Database authentication is the process or act of confirming that a user who is attempting to log in to a database is authorized to do so, and is only accorded the rights to perform activities that he or she has been authorized to do.
The concept of authentication is familiar to almost everyone. For example, a mobile phone performs authentication by asking for a PIN. Similarly, a computer authenticates a username by asking for the corresponding password.
In the context of databases, however, authentication acquires one more dimension because it may happen at different levels. It may be performed by the database itself, or the setup may be changed to allow either the operating system, or some other external method, to authenticate users.
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