External Authentication Method EAM Explained

What is an external authentication method (EAM)?

Modern tech stacks include a variety of internal and third-party services. Decoupling services is a key element of microservices architecture. Doing so can help businesses deliver value faster and with fewer points of failure. However, increasing the number of services involved in software development comes with tradeoffs. Each new service makes identity and access management (IAM) more complex.

Each new service potentially brings a new approach to authentication that may not comply with security or regulatory policies. Poor authentication security in a single service can result in costly cyberattacks and data breaches.

Traditional External Authentication Methods (EAM) rely on identity providers (IdPs) like Okta, Entra ID, and Google Identity to authenticate users. These solutions validate credentials and enforce MFA, but do not assess risk signals in real time.

CrowdStrike takes EAM a step further by combining authentication with advanced risk analysis. Falcon Identity Protection continuously evaluates user risk scores, device trust signals, and threat intelligence before allowing access. This approach prevents adversaries from bypassing authentication using stolen credentials, MFA fatigue attacks, or compromised endpoints.

This article explores the critical elements of EAM, its authentication flow, benefits, risks, challenges, and solutions.

Understanding the EAM ecosystem

Traditional EAM implementations offload authentication to third-party IdPs, which verify user credentials, MFA, or biometric data before issuing an authentication token (e.g., JWT or SAML). While this approach simplifies identity management, it does not assess risk factors like compromised credentials, unusual login behavior, or endpoint security posture.

CrowdStrike Falcon® Identity Protection enhances EAM by introducing risk-based authentication. Instead of blindly trusting IdPs, Falcon Identity Protection evaluates:

• User risk scores: Flags users exhibiting unusual login behaviors.
• Device trust: Ensures only secure, managed devices can authenticate.
• Threat intelligence: Identifies compromised credentials, MFA bombing attempts, or adversary tactics.

This risk-based approach goes beyond credential validation—it ensures that authentication requests come from legitimate users on secure devices.

Offloading the authentication process enhances security, scalability, and user experience. It also reduces the risk associated with decentralized identity management. 

EAM uses the Zero Trust Security Model. By default, EAM does not trust any user or device and requires explicit verification to authenticate an identity. EAM also helps organizations address compliance requirements by applying best practices to data handling. 

Federated IdPs

Federated IdPs act as a source of truth for identity authentication. Popular examples of federated IdPs include Okta, Azure AD, and Google Identity. These providers verify user identities and issue a JWT or SAML token, which is subsequently used by business applications for authorization and session management. 

With this centralized authentication model, businesses eliminate the need for—and risk of—multiple disjointed authentication systems for each and every service in their tech stack.

Single sign-on

Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication model that allows users to log in to multiple applications with a single centralized identity. With SSO, individual business applications offload authentication to a centralized IdP. SSO eliminates the need for repeated authentication, provides a seamless user experience, reduces password fatigue, and minimizes security risks. 

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) enhances EAM security by prompting the user for additional verification before confirming their identity. MFA typically uses a username/password along with a different authentication factor from one of the common MFA options, such as SMS, app-based one-time passwords (OTPs), biometrics, or hardware OTP tokens. By enforcing MFA, EAM implementations reduce the risk of brute force attacks and the damage caused by credential leaks.

How EAM works: authentication flow

The authentication flow in a CrowdStrike-enhanced EAM deployment includes an additional layer of risk analysis:

1. User initiates login request.

2. Authentication request is intercepted by Falcon Identity Protection, which evaluates real-time risk signals before passing the request to the IdP.

3. Risk-based decisioning occurs:

• If the login is low-risk → The user is redirected to the IdP for standard authentication.
• If the login is high-risk → CrowdStrike applies adaptive security controls, such as blocking access, enforcing step-up authentication, or alerting security teams.

4. The IdP verifies credentials and MFA and issues a JWT/SAML token.

5. CrowdStrike continuously monitors session activity for post-authentication risks.

Four key EAM benefits for modern organizations

EAM simplifies identity and access management for organizations and eliminates the need to maintain internal databases and services for storing user credentials. 

The four primary benefits of EAM are: 

1. Proactive threat prevention: Unlike traditional IdPs, Falcon Identity Protection actively blocks identity-based attacks before they reach applications.

2. Risk-based access control: CrowdStrike continuously assesses user, device, and threat signals to determine whether a login should be allowed, challenged, or blocked.

3. Improved compliance and security posture: Organizations using Falcon Identity Protection for EAM gain real-time monitoring of authentication risk, reducing exposure to credential theft, MFA fatigue attacks, and account takeover.

4. Seamless user experience without sacrificing security: By removing unnecessary authentication friction for low-risk users, CrowdStrike balances security with user convenience.

Potential risks and challenges of EAM

EAM simplifies identity management and security, but it also introduces some risks and operational challenges. When building an EAM strategy, organizations should consider the most common EAM stumbling blocks.

Downtime risk from external IdP dependencies 

Traditional EAM solutions rely entirely on external IdPs. If an IdP goes down, authentication fails, locking users out of critical applications. A data breach in the IdP system could leak sensitive user data or expose applications to impersonation attacks. Organizations must regularly review their token issuance policies to mitigate these risks and ensure that downstream applications follow the best validation practices. 

How CrowdStrike Helps:

• Offline risk evaluation: Falcon Identity Protection prevents full IdP lockout by continuously evaluating risk signals even when the IdP is unavailable.
• Adaptive security controls: In case of IdP downtime, Falcon Identity Protection can enforce backup authentication mechanisms to maintain business continuity.

Policies should impose short-lived tokens with limited scopes to reduce the risk of misuse by bad actors. Additionally, it is critical to evaluate the security posture of the IdP regularly and establish service-level agreements (SLAs) for accountability. 

Poor identity management practices 

Inconsistent identity management practices from the external IdP can result in duplicate account creation that causes login issues and increases IT overhead. To avoid this, configure applications with a unique entity ID and ensure user accounts are linked with a unique identifier. 

Orphan account risk and offboarding challenges

Lack of user offboarding workflows can result in orphan accounts, where the user account stays active in the IdP even after the user has left the organization. This increases the risk of unauthorized access. Orphan account risk can be mitigated by implementing automated deprovisioning workflows that synchronize accounts between the IdP and internal systems.

Supporting and securing EAM solutions

EAM significantly reduces the time and effort required to implement an authentication system, enabling enhanced security, compliance, standardization, and scalability. EAM offers end users a seamless login experience across all applications and eliminates the need for repeated authentication. 

Traditional IdP authentication alone isn’t enough to stop modern identity attacks. CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection enhances EAM by analyzing risk signals in real time, ensuring that only trusted users and secure devices gain access.

• Prevent identity-based attacks before authentication occurs
• Block adversaries using stolen credentials or MFA fatigue tactics
• Enforce adaptive authentication with risk-based policies

CrowdStrike’s Falcon Identity Protection and ITDR provide real-time security against identity-based attacks, enabling organizations to identify and respond to these threats as they occur. It also offers Professional Identity Protection Services for proactively monitoring IdP-based threats, including Azure ID, Okta, and Entra ID.