Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Lifecycle Management

Published

Author(s)

Paul A. Grassi, Elaine M. Newton, Ray A. Perlner, Andrew R. Regenscheid, William E. Burr, Justin P. Richer, Naomi B. Lefkovitz, Jamie M. Danker, Yee-Yin Choong, Kristen Greene, Mary F. 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

Keywords

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

Citation

Grassi, P. , Newton, E. , Perlner, R. , Regenscheid, A. , Burr, W. , Richer, J. , Lefkovitz, N. , Danker, J. , Choong, Y. , Greene, K. and Theofanos, M. (2017), Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Lifecycle Management, Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-63b (Accessed March 18, 2024)
Created June 22, 2017, Updated January 27, 2020