Defining users, groups, and roles
To ensure data security, you need to recognize who is accessing your layers and your services. Anonymous access can't be used on secured data.
Security in GeoServer is based on a role system where each role defines a specific function. You can assign roles to users and groups, that is, assigning functions to real people using your system.
To organize your real users, GeoServer provides you with the user, group, and role concept. With the first two, you can insert real people into the GeoServer security subsystem and with roles you can grant rights to real users.
User definition
In GeoServer, a user is someone who can use the system, a real person, or another system. GeoServer stores a username, uniquely identifying the user, a password, and a set of key/value pairs to store general information about it. A user can be disabled.
Group definition
A group is a set of users. GeoServer stores a list of usernames belonging to the group and a group name, uniquely identifying...