Authentication in Kafka

1. Authentication in Kafka ensures that only clients thats can prove their identity can connect to our Kafka Cluster

2. This is similar concept to a login (username / password)

3. Authentication in Kafka can take a few forms

4. SSL Authentication: clients authenticate to Kafka using SSL certificates

5. SASL Authentication:

    - PLAIN: clients authenticate using username / password (weak - easy to setup)

    - Kerberos: such as Microsoft Active Directory (strong - hard to setup)

    - SCRAM: username / password (strong - medium to setup)

6. Once a client is authenticated, Kafka can verify its identity

7. It still needs to be combined with authorisatioin, so that Kafka knows that

    - "User alice can view topic finace"

    - "User bob cannot view topic trucks"

8. ACL(Access Control Lists) have to be maintained by administration and onboard new users