Identity and Access Management

@amitmund July 09, 2026

Identity & Access Management (IAM) Mastery 2026

Complete SAML • OAuth 2.1 • OpenID Connect (OIDC) • SSO • PKI • Enterprise Identity • Zero Trust

The Complete Beginner to Distinguished Engineer Guide to Identity and Access Management (IAM).

This roadmap teaches not only how SAML, OAuth, OIDC, and SSO work internally, but also how to build your own Identity Provider (IdP), Authorization Server, PKI, Certificate Authority, Single Sign-On platform, and Enterprise Identity Infrastructure using Linux, Python, OpenSSL, Docker, Kubernetes, Vault, Keycloak, LDAP, and modern cloud technologies.

Course Goal

By the end of this roadmap you will understand:

Enterprise Authentication
Enterprise Authorization
Identity Management
Single Sign-On
Federation
PKI
Certificate-based Authentication
OAuth
OAuth 2.1
OpenID Connect (OIDC)
SAML 2.0
JWT
JWS
JWE
PKCE
MFA
Passkeys
WebAuthn
FIDO2
Identity Federation
Zero Trust Identity

You'll also build your own:

Identity Provider (IdP)
OAuth Authorization Server
SAML Identity Provider
SAML Service Provider
OpenID Provider
Enterprise SSO Platform
Internal Certificate Authority
Login Portal
MFA Platform
Identity Gateway
Enterprise Authentication Platform

Prerequisites

Must Complete

Linux Mastery
Linux Networking
Linux Security
OpenSSL Mastery
HashiCorp Vault
LDAP Mastery
Networking Mastery
Python
Docker
Kubernetes

Phase 1 — Identity Fundamentals

Module 1

Chapter 1

Introduction to IAM

Identity
Authentication
Authorization
Accounting
Federation
Delegation
Trust Relationships

Chapter 2

Identity Lifecycle

User Creation
Verification
Login
Authorization
Auditing
Revocation
Offboarding

Chapter 3

Identity Providers vs Service Providers

IdP
SP
RP
Authorization Server
Resource Server

Chapter 4

Authentication Methods

Password
OTP
Certificates
Smart Cards
Passkeys
WebAuthn
Biometrics

Phase 2 — Public Key Infrastructure

Module 2

Chapter 5

PKI Fundamentals

Chapter 6

OpenSSL Deep Dive

Generate

Root CA
Intermediate CA
Server Certificates
Client Certificates

Chapter 7

X509 Certificates

Chapter 8

Certificate Validation

Chapter 9

Certificate Revocation

Chapter 10

Mutual TLS

Phase 3 — Single Sign-On

Module 3

Chapter 11

What is SSO?

Chapter 12

SSO Architecture

Chapter 13

SSO Flow

Chapter 14

Enterprise SSO

Chapter 15

Cloud SSO

Chapter 16

Federated Identity

Phase 4 — SAML 2.0

Module 4

Chapter 17

History of SAML

Chapter 18

SAML Architecture

Identity Provider
Service Provider

Chapter 19

XML Signatures

Chapter 20

Assertions

Chapter 21

Metadata

Chapter 22

Authentication Request

Chapter 23

Authentication Response

Chapter 24

Logout Request

Chapter 25

Logout Response

Chapter 26

Bindings

HTTP Redirect
POST
Artifact

Chapter 27

NameID

Chapter 28

Attribute Mapping

Chapter 29

XML Encryption

Chapter 30

XML Digital Signatures

Chapter 31

Certificate Exchange

Chapter 32

SAML Security

Chapter 33

SAML Attacks

Replay
XML Wrapping
Signature Forgery

Phase 5 — OAuth 2.1

Module 5

Chapter 34

OAuth History

Chapter 35

OAuth Architecture

Chapter 36

Authorization Server

Chapter 37

Resource Server

Chapter 38

Client Applications

Chapter 39

Scopes

Chapter 40

Authorization Code Flow

Chapter 41

PKCE

Chapter 42

Client Credentials

Chapter 43

Device Flow

Chapter 44

Refresh Tokens

Chapter 45

Access Tokens

Chapter 46

Token Introspection

Chapter 47

Revocation

Chapter 48

Token Exchange

Phase 6 — OpenID Connect (OIDC)

Module 6

Chapter 49

OIDC Overview

Chapter 50

ID Tokens

Chapter 51

Discovery Endpoint

Chapter 52

JWKS

Chapter 53

UserInfo Endpoint

Chapter 54

OIDC Flows

Chapter 55

Logout

Chapter 56

Session Management

Phase 7 — JWT

Module 7

Chapter 57

JWT

Chapter 58

JWS

Chapter 59

JWE

Chapter 60

Claims

Chapter 61

Signing

Chapter 62

Verification

Chapter 63

Expiration

Chapter 64

Key Rotation

Phase 8 — OpenSSL Integration

Module 8

Learn how OpenSSL is used in IAM.

Generate

RSA Keys
ECC Keys
Signing Certificates
TLS Certificates
JWT Signing Keys
SAML Certificates

Learn

CSR
PKCS12
PEM
DER
PKCS8
PKCS7

Phase 9 — LDAP Integration

Module 9

Use LDAP as

User Store
Group Store
Authentication Backend

Integrate

OpenLDAP
Active Directory

Phase 10 — Build Your Own PKI

Module 10

Projects

Build

Root CA

↓

Intermediate CA

↓

Issue Certificates

↓

Revoke Certificates

↓

Publish CRL

↓

OCSP

Phase 11 — Build Your Own OAuth Server

Module 11

Python

FastAPI

PostgreSQL

JWT

Projects

Build

Authorization Server

Features

Login
Consent
Authorization Code
Refresh Tokens
PKCE
Client Registration

Phase 12 — Build Your Own OpenID Provider

Module 12

Projects

Implement

Discovery Endpoint
JWKS
UserInfo
Logout
Token Endpoint

Phase 13 — Build Your Own SAML Identity Provider

Module 13

Python

Build

Identity Provider

Features

Metadata
Assertions
XML Signatures
Certificates
Login
Logout

Phase 14 — Build Your Own Service Provider

Module 14

Python

Receive

SAML Assertions

Validate

Certificates

Create

Application Sessions

Phase 15 — Build Enterprise SSO

Module 15

Projects

Single Login

↓

Receive Token

↓

Access

GitLab
Jenkins
Grafana
Kubernetes
Vault
ArgoCD

Without Logging Again

Phase 16 — Keycloak

Module 16

Install

Configure

Manage

Realms
Users
Groups
Clients
Roles
Identity Providers

Phase 17 — HashiCorp Vault Integration

Module 17

Authenticate

Vault

Using

LDAP
OAuth
OIDC
JWT
Certificates

Phase 18 — Kubernetes Authentication

Module 18

Authenticate

kubectl
Dashboard
Applications

Using

OIDC

Phase 19 — API Gateway Integration

Module 19

NGINX

Traefik

Envoy

Kong

Authenticate

Requests

Using

JWT

OAuth

OIDC

Phase 20 — Zero Trust Identity

Module 20

Continuous Authentication

Risk-Based Authentication

Conditional Access

Device Trust

mTLS

Short-Lived Tokens

Certificate Rotation

Phase 21 — Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Module 21

Implement

TOTP
HOTP
WebAuthn
Passkeys
FIDO2
Backup Codes

Phase 22 — Security

Module 22

Attacks

Replay
CSRF
Session Fixation
Token Theft
JWT None Attack
XML Signature Wrapping
XXE
OAuth Redirect Attacks
PKCE Bypass
Token Leakage

Mitigations

Phase 23 — Monitoring & Observability

Module 23

Integrate

Prometheus
Grafana
Loki
OpenTelemetry

Monitor

Login Failures
Token Issuance
Certificate Expiration
SSO Latency

Phase 24 — Python Libraries

Module 24

Master

Authlib
python3-saml
PyJWT
cryptography
ldap3
FastAPI
Flask
Starlette
PyOpenSSL
xmlsec
signxml

Phase 25 — Enterprise Projects

Project 1

Internal Root CA

Project 2

Certificate Automation Platform

Project 3

OAuth Authorization Server

Project 4

OIDC Provider

Project 5

SAML Identity Provider

Project 6

SAML Service Provider

Project 7

Enterprise Login Portal

Project 8

Enterprise SSO Platform

Project 9

Zero Trust Identity Gateway

Project 10

Complete Enterprise IAM Platform

Features

LDAP
OAuth
OIDC
SAML
MFA
PKI
JWT
WebAuthn
Passkeys
Vault
Kubernetes
OpenSSL
Monitoring
Audit Logging
High Availability

Setup Guides Included

Complete end-to-end deployment guides for:

OpenSSL

Install OpenSSL
Build Root CA
Intermediate CA
Generate Signing Certificates
Server Certificates
Client Certificates
Certificate Rotation
OCSP
CRL

OpenLDAP

Install
Configure
TLS
User Management
Groups
Replication

Keycloak

Installation
Docker
Kubernetes
PostgreSQL
High Availability
Backup
Restore

OAuth Authorization Server

Build From Scratch

Python

FastAPI

PostgreSQL

Redis

SAML Identity Provider

Build From Scratch

Python

OpenSSL

XMLSec

Enterprise SSO

Deploy

NGINX
HAProxy
Kubernetes
Docker
Vault
Grafana
Jenkins
GitLab

Every Chapter Includes

Every chapter follows the same professional structure:

Learning Objectives
Theory
Internal Working
Protocol Internals
Packet-Level Analysis
PKI Concepts
OpenSSL Commands
XML & JSON Message Structure
Authentication Flow
Authorization Flow
Token Lifecycle
Sequence Diagrams
Mermaid Diagrams
Architecture Diagrams
Python Code Examples
OpenSSL Commands
Linux Configuration
Docker Examples
Kubernetes Examples
REST API Examples
Production Examples
Enterprise Case Studies
Security Notes
Common Mistakes
Troubleshooting
Best Practices
Performance Considerations
Hands-on Labs
Mini Projects
Exercises
Quiz
Interview Questions
Cheat Sheets
RFC References
Official Documentation

Hands-on Labs

Build your own Root CA with OpenSSL.
Create and sign server/client certificates.
Secure LDAP using TLS.
Deploy Keycloak with PostgreSQL.
Configure LDAP as the Keycloak user store.
Implement an OAuth 2.1 Authorization Server in Python.
Add PKCE support to a public client.
Build an OpenID Connect Provider with discovery and JWKS endpoints.
Create a SAML Identity Provider using Python and XMLSec.
Integrate a SAML Service Provider and validate signed assertions.
Configure SSO for Grafana, Jenkins, GitLab, Vault, and Kubernetes.
Add TOTP-based MFA and WebAuthn passkeys.
Rotate signing keys and publish updated JWKS.
Protect APIs with an API Gateway using JWT validation.
Deploy a highly available IAM platform with monitoring and audit logging.

Estimated Course Size

25 Modules
100+ Core Chapters
5,000+ Pages
1,500+ OpenSSL, LDAP, OAuth & SAML Commands
1,200+ Architecture, Sequence & Protocol Diagrams
350+ Hands-on Labs
120+ Enterprise Case Studies
10 Enterprise Capstone Projects
Complete Enterprise IAM, SSO, SAML, OAuth & OIDC Mastery

Final Outcome

After completing this roadmap, you will be able to:

Design and operate enterprise Identity and Access Management (IAM) platforms.
Build and manage PKI, Certificate Authorities, and secure TLS infrastructures using OpenSSL.
Implement OAuth 2.1, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, and Single Sign-On from first principles.
Integrate LDAP, Vault, Kubernetes, API Gateways, and enterprise applications into a unified identity ecosystem.
Develop production-ready Identity Providers, Authorization Servers, and SSO portals in Python.
Architect secure, scalable, and Zero Trust identity solutions suitable for Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Distinguished Engineer, Security Architect, or Platform Architect roles.