CIOPages
DirectoryCybersecurityCloud Security & CSPMDex

Dex

Open Source

About Dex

Dex provides federated OpenID Connect that sits in front of identity providers such as LDAP, SAML, GitHub, and Google. It functions as a single authentication layer that integrates identity providers through OpenID Connect without requiring changes to application code. Dex is a CNCF Sandbox project. It is distributed as a lightweight binary with an official Helm chart. Dex uses OIDC and OAuth2 as its underlying standards. It supports a range of upstream providers including LDAP, SAML, GitHub, Google, GitLab, and Microsoft.

Used for

  • Integrating services with Dex once and adding LDAP, SAML or OIDC providers later without touching applications.
  • Bundling Dex next to an application so the platform supports auth via multiple providers.
  • Providing single sign-on for the Kubernetes dashboard, internal tools, and the kubectl flow.
  • Authenticating locally during development using a built-in mock connector.

From Dex's own website, read 2026-10-23. How we build listings.

How to evaluate Cloud Security & CSPM

This is how the CIOPages Research Team evaluates this category. It is not an assessment of Dex. It comes from our Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) buyer guide.

25%
Risk Prioritization & Attack-Path Analysis
Context graph that correlates misconfiguration, internet reachability, identity/permissions, vulnerabilities, secrets, and data sensitivity into ranked attack paths to crown-jewel assets; toxic-combination detection; quality of the β€œfix these 10” output versus raw finding volume; false-positive rate in your own accounts
20%
Coverage Model: Agentless Breadth vs. Runtime Depth
Agentless snapshot/API scanning for fast 100%-estate visibility versus agent/eBPF runtime for in-production threat detection (CDR); container, serverless, and Kubernetes (KSPM) coverage; how the two models combine without double-counting; performance impact and deployment friction
20%
Multi-Cloud & Platform Consolidation (CNAPP)
Depth and parity across AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Kubernetes from one console; how many of CSPM, CIEM, CWPP, DSPM, KSPM, and code/IaC security are genuinely unified on one data model versus bolted-on acquisitions; single policy and one risk score across domains
15%
Identity & Entitlements (CIEM)
Effective-permission analysis across human and machine identities, cross-account and federated role mapping, detection of unused and over-privileged entitlements, least-privilege right-sizing recommendations, and privilege escalation / lateral-movement path discovery
10%
Remediation, Automation & Developer Workflow
Guided and auto-remediation, IaC and pull-request fixes (shift-left to code), guardrails that prevent drift, ticketing/SOAR integration, ownership routing to the right team, and API/Terraform coverage for security-as-code
10%
Compliance, Reporting & SOC Integration
Out-of-the-box frameworks (CIS, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, NIST) with custom policy authoring, audit-ready evidence and drift history, RBAC/SSO on the console, and clean export of correlated cloud risk into the SIEM/SOC rather than a siloed dashboard

CIOPages put this listing together from public sources. It’s information, not an endorsement. How we build listings. Work here? Claim this listing or .

Quick Facts

dexidp.io
CategoryCybersecurity
SubcategoryCloud Security & CSPM
DeploymentSelf-hosted

We publish a detail only when we can point at the page it came from. Know when Dex was founded or where it is based? Send it to us, free.

Keep reading

Buyer Guide
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
State of Play
Zero trust network access

The annual review of this market: what changed, with answers from the vendors in it.

Job 06
Secure and comply

AI agents act on systems with their own identities, and auditors and boards ask about them.