Daily Post June 18 2025

Email Us |TEL: 050-1720-0641 | LinkedIn

Mintarc Forge	Contact Us	News Letter	Blog	Partners
Collaboration	Questions?	Monthly Letter	Monthly Blog	Our Partners

Authelia

This is an authentication and authorization server designed to provide identity and access management (IAM) for web applications. It provides security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) through a web portal. As an OpenID Connect 1.0 Provider, Authelia enables integrations and acts as a companion for reverse proxies, making it an good solution for both individuals and organizations looking to secure their web infrastructure.

It serves as an intermediary between users and the web applications they wish to access. It authenticates users, authorizes their access based on granular policies, and manages sessions, while ensuring that only legitimate users can reach protected resources. Rather than being directly exposed to the internet, Authelia typically works alongside reverse proxies such as nginx, Traefik, Caddy, Envoy, and HAProxy. This design allows it to intercept authentication requests and enforce security policies without requiring changes to the backend applications themselves.

Written in Go and React, which contributes to its light footprint and high performance. The application can be deployed in various environments, including standalone installations, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), and even package managers for different operating systems. This flexibility ensures that Authelia can be integrated into a wide range of deployment scenarios, from small self-hosted setups to large enterprise infrastructures.

Why Use Authelia?

The primary motivation for using Authelia is to help the security and user experience of web applications. Many self-hosted or legacy web apps lack built-in authentication mechanisms or only offer basic username and password protection. Authelia addresses these shortcomings by providing:

• Single Sign-On (SSO), Users authenticate once through Authelia and gain access to multiple applications without needing to log in repeatedly. This improves convenience and reduces password fatigue.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Authelia supports several second-factor methods, including time-based one-time passwords (TOTP), mobile push notifications, and hardware security keys using FIDO2 WebAuthn. This significantly raises the security bar compared to password-only systems.
• Granular Access Control, Administrators can define fine-grained policies specifying which users or groups can access specific resources, domains, or endpoints. These policies can be tailored to enforce one-factor or two-factor authentication as needed.
• Passwordless Authentication, With support for passkeys and WebAuthn, Authelia enables secure, passwordless logins, aligning with modern authentication trends.
• Declarative Configuration, All settings are managed through configuration files rather than a web UI, making it easy to automate deployments and maintain consistency across environments. This approach is particularly beneficial for DevOps workflows and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Integration with Reverse Proxies, By acting as a companion to reverse proxies, Authelia can protect virtually any web application, even those without native authentication support.

Open Source

Authelia is fully open source, with its codebase publicly available on GitHub. The developers believe that security should be accessible to everyone and that open-source software fosters transparency, auditability, and community-driven improvement. This philosophy allows anyone to inspect the code, contribute enhancements, or adapt the solution to their specific needs.

The open-source nature of Authelia also ensures that users are not locked into a proprietary ecosystem. They retain full control over their authentication infrastructure, data, and deployment choices. This is particularly geared for organizations with strict security or compliance requirements, as well as for individuals who value privacy and self-sovereignty.

Security Features and Practices

Security is a central concern in Authelia’s design. The project incorporates multiple layers of protection and follows best practices to reduce the risk of breaches:

• Brute Force Protection, Authelia limits the number of login attempts, locking accounts temporarily after too many failed tries to thwart brute-force attacks.
• Second-Factor Enforcement, Users who have not set up a second-factor device must validate their identity through email, reducing the risk posed by weak or reused passwords.
• Session Management, Once authenticated, users receive a session cookie, OpenID Connect token, or trusted headers, which are used to maintain secure access across applications.
• Password Reset with Verification, Built-in mechanisms allow users to reset their passwords securely, with identity verification via email to prevent unauthorized changes.
• Minimal Attack Surface, Authelia is not directly exposed to the internet; instead, reverse proxies handle incoming traffic, and only authentication-related data reaches Authelia. This separation adds an extra layer of defense.
• Low Resource Usage, The lightweight nature of Authelia (typically under 30MB RAM and minimal CPU usage) means it can be deployed without introducing significant overhead or new vulnerabilities associated with resource exhaustion.
• Security-First Development, The Authelia team is committed to avoiding features with questionable security implications and aims to comply with OpenSSF Security Best Practices. The project is working toward formal security audits and accreditations.

Community Size and Stability

Authelia has cultivated a active and growing community since its inception. The project is actively maintained, with regular releases and a transparent development roadmap. Contributions come from both core developers and external users, reflecting a healthy open-source ecosystem.

The community provides support through various channels, including GitHub issues, discussions, and documentation. There is also a financial contributor program to help fund security audits and ongoing development, signaling a commitment to long-term stability and improvement.

Authelia’s integration guides and deployment recipes are widely referenced in the self-hosted and DevOps communities, and its compatibility with popular reverse proxies has made it a go-to choice for many seeking to secure their web applications.

Deployment and Integration

Deploying Authelia is straightforward, it has flexible architecture and deep documentation. It can be installed as a standalone binary, via Docker or Kubernetes, or through package managers for various operating systems. Helm charts are available for orchestrating deployments in Kubernetes environments, and curated configurations exist for popular reverse proxy setups.

Integration with reverse proxies is a key feature. For example, with Traefik, Authelia can be set up using the ForwardAuth middleware, while with nginx or Caddy, it uses similar directives to intercept and manage authentication requests. This modular approach means that Authelia can protect virtually any HTTP-based application, regardless of its internal authentication capabilities.

Its is a good tool that we user here at mintarc it is worth looking at. https://www.authelia.com/