AspNetCore.Docs/aspnetcore/security/authorization/introduction.md

title	author	description	ms.author	manager	ms.date	ms.topic	ms.technology	ms.prod	uid
Introduction to authorization	rick-anderson	This document provides a basic explanation of authorization and explains how authorization relates to ASP.NET Core.	riande	wpickett	10/14/2016	article	aspnet	asp.net-core	security/authorization/introduction

Introduction

Authorization refers to the process that determines what a user is able to do. For example, an administrative user is allowed to create a document library, add documents, edit documents, and delete them. A non-administrative user working with the library is only authorized to read the documents.

Authorization is orthogonal and independent from authentication, which is the process of ascertaining who a user is. Authentication may create one or more identities for the current user.

Authorization Types

ASP.NET Core authorization provides a simple declarative role and a rich policy based model. Authorization is expressed in requirements, and handlers evaluate a user's claims against requirements. Imperative checks can be based on simple policies or policies which evaluate both the user identity and properties of the resource that the user is attempting to access.

Namespaces

Authorization components, including the AuthorizeAttribute and AllowAnonymousAttribute attributes are found in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization namespace.