Personal Access Token
A personal access token (PAT) lets a user authenticate to a service in order to access or act on protected resources. PATs can be an alterative to a password, often in automation and other programmatic use cases.
A personal access token (PAT) associates with a single user rather than an application or system. PATs are user-specific, meaning that the information stored within the access token ties to the user’s information. This information may encapsulate unique authentication and authorization to the system requiring the PAT, such as a system using an API.
The platform or service provider generates the PAT for the user and often includes configurable scopes or permissions within the system or service. The PAT defines specific actions or resources that the user can access. PATs are designed to be stateless, meaning that the server validating the token does not need to maintain a session state or store token-specific information.
PATs typically have an expiration date to reduce the risk of unauthorized access if the token is compromised. When the PAT expires, the user can create a new PAT. Users can also manually revoke PATs if they are compromised or no longer necessary.
PATs come in different formats, like JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) or OAuth Access Tokens. Usually, these formats are a string of characters that encode necessary information (like the user’s identity, authorized permissions, or relevant metadata). These formats typically consist of strings of characters that represent necessary information, such as the user’s identity, authorized permissions, or relevant metadata. To ensure the integrity of the token and prevent tampering, the access token is further digitally signed.
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