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Windows: security principal

A security principal is any entity that can be authenticated by the Windows OS.
Security principals include:
Security principals are identified (or represented) by SIDs. A name is just a more readable representation of a SID.

Local vs domain

Security principals can be created locally or in a domain.
If the principal is created in a domain, the domain manages access to domain resources.
If created locally, SAM (Security Account Manager) manages them on the local computer.

See also

principal (security)
The .NET interface System.Security.Principal.IPrincipal and class System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal.
The CurrentPrincipal property of the System.Threading.Thread member.

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