Credential

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A Credential associates an Identity or authority claim with information used during Authentication or Access Control.

Credentials include passwords, authentication tokens, cryptographic certificates, signed assertions, application credentials, service credentials, and physical or digital identity tokens.

A Credential contains Cryptographic Material, refers to Cryptographic Material, or operates without Cryptographic Material. The concepts overlap but remain distinct. A Credential supports an identity or authority claim. Cryptographic Material supports a cryptographic operation or relationship.

A Credential requires controlled creation, issuance, storage, distribution, use, rotation, revocation, retention, and disposal throughout its Lifecycle.

representation of an identity or authority claim used in authentication or access control

DIDO Solutions project definition.

Possession of a Credential does not independently establish authorisation. An authentication or access-control process evaluates the Credential and the applicable Policy before granting access.

A record identifies a sensitive Credential through a protected reference, identifier, digest, or redacted representation rather than an exposed value.

The controls applied to a Credential preserve its required Confidentiality, Integrity, authenticity, availability, and Traceability.

A client certificate presented by a Node during mutual TLS authentication constitutes a Credential.