Auth Proxy for Centralized Authentication
Case study: Centralized authentication proxy serving 100K+ users with OAuth2, SAML, and LDAP support. 99.99% uptime and sub-100ms response times.
Project Overview
Our enterprise client had a complex ecosystem of applications with inconsistent authentication mechanisms. Different systems used various protocols (OAuth2, SAML, LDAP) and custom authentication flows, creating security vulnerabilities and poor user experience.
We designed and implemented a centralized authentication proxy that unified access control across all applications while maintaining compatibility with existing systems and providing a seamless user experience.
Technical Architecture
The authentication proxy was built as a distributed system with multiple components:
- Gateway Layer: Handles all incoming authentication requests and routes them to appropriate handlers
- Protocol Adapters: Modular adapters for OAuth2, SAML, LDAP, and custom protocols
- Session Management: Distributed session storage with Redis for horizontal scaling
- Audit System: Comprehensive logging of all authentication events for security compliance
Security Impact
The centralized proxy transformed the organization’s security posture:
- Unified Access Control: Single point of authentication for all applications
- Vulnerability Elimination: Removed inconsistent auth implementations across systems
- Audit Compliance: Comprehensive logging of all authentication events
- Enterprise SSO: Seamless single sign-on experience across the ecosystem
!Challenges
- Supporting multiple authentication protocols
- Handling high concurrency and load
- Ensuring security compliance
- Managing session state efficiently
- Integrating with legacy systems
Solutions
- Implemented multi-protocol authentication gateway
- Built distributed caching with Redis clusters
- Created comprehensive security audit logging
- Designed stateless architecture with JWT
- Developed migration tools for legacy integration
Results & Impact
100K+ active users supported
99.99% authentication uptime
Sub-100ms response times
Multi-protocol support (OAuth2, SAML, LDAP)
Centralized access management
Let's Build Something
Amazing Together
Let's discuss how we can help you achieve similar results.