📖What it means

Whoever or whatever is doing the acting, from the access system's point of view — an agent, a person, a service account. Permissions attach to principals, not to code.

📖Easily confused with

[{"term": "Agent", "distinction": "A principal is the access system's name for an actor; an agent is a Carolverse role."}, {"term": "Role", "distinction": "A principal is who is acting; a role is the bundle of permissions they hold."}]

📖Also called

- actor
- identity
- subject of access

📖Filed under

Category: general.

Service: Security.