What is an attribute (Attribut), and into which groups do attributes fall?

An attribute is the digital image of a property assigned to a subject; attributes group into subject-identifying and describing ones, authenticating ones, authorisation-relevant ones and metadata attributes.

• Identifying and describing: identifiers and foreign keys, name, gender, date of birth, communication attributes (e-mail, phone, address), biometric attributes such as photos.
• Authenticating: credentials or references to credentials.
• Authorisation-relevant: context attributes (position in an organisation) and role attributes (function in an organisation).
• Metadata attributes: information about capture, status and validity.

Attributes may live in the IAM system itself or in attached systems such as HR or CRM. The identifier is a specially used attribute. Synonym: claim.

Go deeper:

• Attribute (NIST glossary) — the formal definitions across NIST publications.