What term describes the administration of user accounts and their associated attributes in directory services?

The term that best describes the administration of user accounts and their associated attributes in directory services is identity management. This encompasses the processes and policies used to manage user identities, access rights, and the entire lifecycle of user accounts. It includes the creation, maintenance, and removal of user accounts in a directory service, ensuring that the right individuals have appropriate access to resources across the organization.

While identity repositories refers specifically to the storage of user information and attributes within a directory service, it does not capture the broader scope of managing those accounts. User authentication pertains to verifying a user's identity typically through credentials like passwords or biometrics, serving a different purpose than managing the accounts themselves. Access control, on the other hand, deals with determining and enforcing what users can do with the resources they have access to, which is a part of identity management but not equivalent to it.