Overview

Kerberos delegation and impersonation are advanced features that allow services to act on behalf of users in secure network environments. These capabilities enable multi-tier applications to work together while maintaining strong security controls and audit trails.

Key Points

• Delegation allows a service to obtain credentials on behalf of a user to access other services
• Constrained delegation restricts which services can be impersonated, reducing security risks
• Impersonation enables a service to temporarily act with the permissions of another user
• Forwardable tickets are required for delegation to work across multiple service hops
• Audit logs track delegation activities to maintain accountability and detect misuse

Why This Matters

Many real-world applications require services to access resources on a user's behalf, such as a web server retrieving data from a database. Understanding delegation and impersonation helps system administrators configure secure multi-tier applications while preventing unauthorized access and maintaining compliance with security policies.

Suggested Next Steps

• Kerberos Ticket Granting Service (TGS)
• Active Directory and Kerberos Integration
• Security Best Practices for Service Accounts

Sources

• RFC 4120: The Kerberos Network Authentication V5 Protocol
• Microsoft Documentation on Kerberos Delegation