Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Lifecycle Management [includes updates as of 03-02- 2020]

Published

March 2, 2020

Author(s)

Paul A. Grassi, James L. Fenton, Elaine M. Newton, Ray Perlner, Andrew Regenscheid, William E. Burr, Justin P. Richer, Naomi Lefkovitz, Jamie M. Danker, Yee-Yin Choong, Kristen K. Greene, Mary Theofanos

Abstract

These guidelines provide technical requirements for federal agencies implementing digital identity services and are not intended to constrain the development or use of standards outside of this purpose. These guidelines focus on the authentication of subjects interacting with government systems over open networks, establishing that a given claimant is a subscriber who has been previously authenticated. The result of the authentication process may be used locally by the system performing the authentication or may be asserted elsewhere in a federated identity system. This document defines technical requirements for each of the three authenticator assurance levels. This publication supersedes corresponding sections of NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-63-2.

Citation

Special Publication (NIST SP) - 800-63B

Report Number

800-63B

NIST Pub Series

Special Publication (NIST SP)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Supercedes Publication

Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Lifecycle Management [including updates as of 12- 01-2017]

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

authentication, credential service provider, digital authentication, digital credentials, electronic authentication, electronic credentials, federation

Citation

Grassi, P. , Fenton, J. , Newton, E. , Perlner, R. , Regenscheid, A. , Burr, W. , Richer, J. , Lefkovitz, N. , Danker, J. , Choong, Y. , Greene, K. and Theofanos, M. (2020), Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Lifecycle Management [includes updates as of 03-02- 2020], Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-63b (Accessed October 8, 2025)