Keycloak
| Company type | Open-source software project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer security software |
| Predecessor | Red Hat JBoss SSO, PicketLink |
| Founded | September 2014 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Single sign-on, identity and access management software |
| Parent | Red Hat (until April 2023) |
Keycloak is an open-source software solution designed for single sign-on and identity and access management, tailored to contemporary applications and services. Up until April 2023, it was overseen by Red Hat as part of the WildFly community initiative and functioned as the upstream source for the Red_Hat_build_of_Keycloak. In April 2023, Keycloak was contributed to the CNCF where it currently holds incubating project status.
Supporting protocols such as OpenID, OAuth 2.0, and SAML, Keycloak delivers capabilities including user administration, two-factor authentication, role and permission management, along with token handling services. It offers compatibility with front-end libraries like React and Angular, in addition to container environments such as Docker.
History
Following approximately one year of development, Keycloak’s initial production version was launched in September 2014. In 2016, Red Hat shifted its RH SSO product from the PicketLink framework to Keycloak after integrating PicketLink’s codebase into the Keycloak project.
Keycloak has become the successor to the Red Hat JBoss SSO open source solution, which itself had replaced PicketLink. Since March 2018, visitors to the former JBoss SSO website are redirected to Keycloak’s official site. As part of a broader rebranding effort, Red Hat phased out the JBoss name for upstream projects, exemplified by renaming JBoss AS to Wildfly.
Components
The Keycloak system is composed of two main elements:
- Keycloak server, responsible for delivering both API access and a user-friendly interface.
- Keycloak client. It is important to note that adapter libraries previously offered were deprecated in 2022.