Ubuntu Adds a New Authentication Feature

Being adept in the field of cybersecurity is an important skill to have, more so if you are an enterprise with a workforce spanning the globe. If you were to slip up, it would open up the door for a range of cyberattacks, resulting in monetary and reputational losses.

Some of the most common ways to secure an IT infrastructure are to manage who/what gets access to which resources through the use of open protocols like OAuth. Another increasingly popular way to manage identity authentication is by using OpenID Connect (OIDC), which is based on OAuth and is a standardized way for authorizing users to access apps and services.

Moving on to the topic at hand, Canonical has introduced support for OIDC authentication on Ubuntu by implementing a new open-source tool called “Authd”.

Let's see what it has to offer. 😃

Ubuntu Authd: What To Expect?

a screenshot of ubuntu authd working with entra id — Source: Canonical

Primarily written in the Go programming language, Authd is an authentication service for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS that has been introduced to simplify the needs of organizations and individuals looking to use identity management services.

At launch, Authd supports OIDC, with Microsoft's Entra ID being the first supported identity provider. As demonstrated by the screenshot above, Ubuntu was showing an authentication prompt to log in to a service equipped with Entra ID.

Authd can be used to log in through the GNOME Display Manager (GDM), or via Secure Shell (SSH). It has a modular design that makes it effortless to integrate with cloud services.

Canonical also intends to introduce more identity providers in the near future, with plans to also have a white-label OIDC provider (allows wider customization) in the mix.

Though, they have not mentioned which ones, if I had to guess, they are probably going to integrate well-known options like Okta, Google Identity Platform, and Auth0.

You can take a look at Authd's architecture below. 👇

an illustration showing the architecture of authd

We won't go into the technical aspects of it, but keep in mind that the identity brokers shown above are provided as snaps. In the end, Authd is something that arose out of the need for a reliable solution for supporting identity providers on Linux desktops and servers.

You can go through the announcement blog to dive into the technical bits of Authd.

Want To Check It Out?

Currently, Authd is available for all users of Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop and Server. If you are looking to deploy this at an enterprise level, then the official Project Wiki is worth a visit.

And, if you want to take a look at the source code or contribute to the project, then you should visit Authd's GitHub repo.

Authd (GitHub)

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