Is a trust between Active Directory domains required for configuring delegated authentication?

In the context of configuring delegated authentication within an Okta environment that integrates with Active Directory, a trust between Active Directory domains is not required. Delegated authentication allows users to authenticate using their AD credentials without necessitating a trust relationship between domains. This authentication occurs directly through the Okta platform and can communicate with different domains independently.

Using delegated authentication, Okta acts as an intermediary; it captures the user's login details and validates them against the respective Active Directory instance. Since this process does not rely on cross-domain trusts, it remains flexible and can function effectively even in environments where such trusts are not established.

Establishing trusts might introduce complexities related to security configurations and access permissions, which are unnecessary for Okta's delegated authentication. Thus, the architecture can be simplified without depending on the trust relationships between different Active Directory domains. This provides organizations with greater flexibility in configuring and managing their identity resources across multiple environments.