Is SAML an authentication mechansim. ? I have seen this being written in many places.
As per my understanding SAML is not an authentication mechanism but a way to exchange authentication and authorization data between a service provider and an identity provider. ?
Both Service provider and identity provider have to be SAML compliant or basically understand SAML to take part.
Authentication can be done by any means like oAuth, Form etc. and then SAML exchange happens.
Best Regards,
Saurav
Actually SAML is a internet standards based technology to achieve web-based single on.
The actual authentication, which happens at the SAML IdP is out of scope of the specification.
However sometimes implementors do no accurately distinguish between SSO and authentication.
Chapter 1 from SAML Technical Overview, a document published in 2008 and still a good read:
The Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard defines a
framework for exchanging security information between online business
partners.
...and then Chapter 4 in the same doc
SAML consists of building-block components that, when put together,
allow a number of use cases to be supported. The components
primarily permit transfer of identity, authentication, attribute, and
authorization information between autonomous organizations that have
an established trust relationship
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is an identity federation protocol.
(1) Traditionally a web application utilizes a local data storage (such as MySQL which is used to store username/password credentials) to accomplish the login authentication.
On the other hand, a web application can leverage a third-party SAML Identity Provider (IdP) to accomplish the login authentication if the web application has been integrated with a SAML Service Provider (SP).
(2) Usually a SAML IdP utilizes identity repository (such as OpenLDAP) to provide identity authentication for a SAML SP-enabled web application.
(3) A web application, which has been integrated with a SAML SP, outsources login authentication to a SAML IdP.
Without loss of generality, we assume that the SAML IdP has been configured with OpenLDAP.
A typical SAMP SP-intitiated authentication procedure can be described below.
(I) A user launches a web browser to access a SAML SP-enabled web application.
(II) The user is redirected to a SAML IdP which will prompt username/password login screen.
SAML SP sends a SAML request to SAML IdP.
(III) The user submits the username/password credential.
(IV) The SAML IdP leverages OpenLDAP to validate the username/password credential.
(V) The user is redirected back and logged in to the web application if the user has been authenticated by OpenLDAP successfully.
SAML IdP sends a SAML response token to federate the user identity (such as username) to SAML SP-enabled web application.
(4) How to build and run Shibboleth SAML IdP and SP using Docker container demonstrates how a SAML IdP utilizes OpenLDAP to provide identity authentication and then federates the user identity (such as username) to a SAML SP-enabled web application, thus accomplishing the login authentication for the web application.
Related
I have an internal app that allows users to sign in using Azure AD. On authentication, a SAML assertion is returned. However, some of the calls that the application makes require a JWT. WHat is the best way for me to get a JWT when a user signs in? Or is there a way for me to exchange the SAML for a JWT?
Disclaimer: I'm not expert an any of this stuff; I'm still learning it too and struggling with a similar problem. That said, here is my understanding.
I'm pretty sure there is no connection between SAML and JWT. Not a surprise, given that SAML 2.0 dates back to 2005 and JWT got started around 2012. So it's logically impossible for the SAML spec to say anything about JWTs.
If my understanding is correct, you have two options:
Do not use SAML directly. Instead of interacting with a SAML IdP (identity provider), use OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 with a provider that acts as an authentication broker. Configure the broker to act as service provider to your chosen SAML IdP. Configure your application to act as relying party (OAuth terminology, I think?) on the authentication broker. Then your app is OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect/JWT all the way down. Your only interaction with SAML is configuring an authentication broker. Main downside is now you have to select and pay for an authentication broker as well as a SAML IdP.
Write your own authentication/authorization service to consume SAML assertions and issue JWTs. This might be necessary anyways, depending on how you need to represent authorization info in your JWTs.
I am trying to integrate a Google Identity Platform SAML provider with Okta. Typically the flow that have used to use a GIP provider, is this process where you provide the provider ID, and wait for the callback. This works correctly with Okta as an identity. However, in order to create the Okta integration, (and allow the user to click the application and be taken to the website) you need to provide the ACS(assertion consumer service), which in this case would be https://my-app-12345.firebaseapp.com/__/auth/handler however when this is posted to, and a SAML response received, there is no way to redirect to our web page. Is there a way to use the SAML Provider's ACS directly, but still return the result to a JS web page?
Question:
I am trying to integrate a Google Identity Platform SAML provider with Okta. Typically the flow that have used to use a GIP provider, is this process where you provide the provider ID, and wait for the callback. This works correctly with Okta as an identity.
Answer:
(1) Okta supports the third party SAML identity provider such as Google Identity Platform or Shibboleth IdP.
(I) Google Identity Platform is SAML identity provider. Okta is SAML service provider.
(II) Okta is SAML identity provider. Web application (such as Office 365, Salesforce, Dropbox, Box, etc.) is SAML service provider.
(2) A user can log in to a web application via Okta by using the credential of the third party SAML identity provider of Okta.
I have validated the following user identity federation procedure for Salesforce (a web application) from the web application perspective:
(I) A user accesses their Salesforce organization domain (such as https://example.my.salesforce.com/)
(II) Select Log In with a Different Provider > Okta with Google Identity Platform
(III) The user is redirected to Google Identity Platform via Okta
(IV) The user submits their Google G Suite username/password credential (e.g., winston.hong#example.com )
(V) The user is redirected back by Google Identity Platform and Okta, and then is logged in to their Salesforce account successfully.
Note that the user's username for Google Identity Platform, Okta account and Salesforce account is the same, i.e., winston.hong#example.com for their organization example.com
Question:
However, in order to create the Okta integration, (and allow the user to click the application and be taken to the website) you need to provide the ACS(assertion consumer service), which in this case would be https://my-app-12345.firebaseapp.com/__/auth/handler however when this is posted to, and a SAML response received, there is no way to redirect to our web page. Is there a way to use the SAML Provider's ACS directly, but still return the result to a JS web page?
Answer:
(1) As a SAML identity provider, Okta supports both SAML SP-Initiated flow and SAML IdP-Initiated flow.
As a SAML service provider, Salesforce supports SAML SP-Initiated flow.
(2) In order to create the Okta integration and allow the user to click the application and be taken to the website (such as Salesforce organization domain https://example.my.salesforce.com/), you do NOT need to provide the ACS (assertion consumer service) URL, Instead, you need to provide the organization domain of Salesforce, i.e.,
Application label Salesforce.com
Instance Type Production
Custom Domain example
(3) A user can log in to a web application via Okta by using the credential of the third party SAML identity provider of Okta.
I have validated the following user identity federation procedure for Salesforce (a web application) from the Okta perspective (This is your use case):
(I) A user accesses their Okta organization domain (such as https://example.okta.com/)
(II) Click Need help signing in? and then click Log in with Google
(III) The user is redirected to Google Identity Platform
(IV) The user submits their Google G Suite username/password credential (e.g., winston.hong#example.com )
(V) The user is redirected back and then is logged in to their Okta account successfully
(VI) On their Okta home screen, the user click Salesforce application icon
(VII) The user is redirected to their Salesforce organization domain, and then is logged in to their Salesforce account successfully.
Issue:
Quote "however when this is posted to, and a SAML response received, there is no way to redirect to our web page. Is there a way to use the SAML Provider's ACS directly, but still return the result to a JS web page?"
Resolution:
(1) This is exactly SAML SP ACS issue of your web application https://my-app-12345.firebaseapp.com/__/auth/handler.
(2) You have to either modify the SAML SP configuration of your web application or modify the SAML SP source code of your web application, because the SAML SP ACS endpoint of your web application does NOT redirect to your web application page after verifying SAML signature sent by Okta SAML IdP.
(3) I have validated the following user identity federation procedure for Shibboleth SAML SP demo application (a web application parallel to your web application) from the Okta perspective (This is your use case):
(I) A user accesses their Okta organization domain (such as https://example.okta.com/)
(II) Click Need help signing in? and then click Log in with Google
(III) The user is redirected to Google Identity Platform
(IV) The user submits their Google G Suite username/password credential (e.g., winston.hong#example.com )
(V) The user is redirected back and then is logged in to their Okta account successfully
(VI) On their Okta home screen, the user click Shibboleth SAML SP demo application icon
(VII) The user is redirected to Shibboleth SAML SP demo application, and then is logged in to their Shibboleth SAML SP demo application successfully.
(4) The configuration of a general SAML SP application through Okta Admin GUI
Shibboleth SAML SP demo application (parallel to your web application my-app-12345.firebaseapp.com)
Applications > Shibboleth SAML SP demo > SAML Settings
Single Sign On URL https://samlsp.example.com/Shibboleth.sso/SAML2/POST
Recipient URL https://samlsp.example.com/Shibboleth.sso/SAML2/POST
Destination URL https://samlsp.example.com/Shibboleth.sso/SAML2/POST
Audience Restriction https://samlsp.example.com/Shibboleth.sso/Metadata
Note that Single Sign On URL is ACS URL of SAML SP of your web application.
(5) How to build and run Shibboleth SAML IdP and SP using Docker container at GitHub repository provides the instruction on building your own IDP for SAML in Java using Shibboleth SAML IdP and OpenLDAP.
Shibboleth SAML IdP is responsible for identity federation.
OpenLDAP is responsible for identity authentication.
(I) I have validated SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) provided by Docker-running Shibboleth SAML IdP (Identity Provider) and OpenLDAP for the following enterprise applications. In other words, I leveraged Docker-running Shibboleth SAML IdP and OpenLDAP to log in to the following enterprise applications successfully.
Microsoft Office 365
Google G Suite
Salesforce
Dropbox
Box
Amazon AWS
OpenStack
Citrix NetScaler
VMware vCloud Director
Oracle NetSuite
(II) I have also leveraged Docker-running Shibboleth SAML IdP and OpenLDAP to log in to Salesforce and Shibboleth SAML SP demo application via Okta successfully.
Shibboleth SAML IdP is SAML identity provider (parallel to Google Identity Platform), Okta is SAML service provider.
Okta is SAML identity provider. Web application (such as Salesforce and Shibboleth SAML SP application) is SAML service provider.
(III) For your convenience, I have made the 11th commit to upload the Okta SP metadata and corresponding SAML configuration to How to build and run Shibboleth SAML IdP and SP using Docker container.
Note that I have logged in to Salesforce organization "example.com" account (https://example.my.salesforce.com) with username "winston.hong#example.com" successfully via Okta by using Shibboleth IdP running with Docker Container.
(IV) How to build and run Shibboleth SAML IdP and SP using Docker container provides the SAML SP configuration for SAML SP demo application.
I am trying to understand SAML and the IDP / SP model by following this auth0 tutorial.
https://auth0.com/docs/protocols/saml/samlsso-auth0-to-auth0
In this tutorial you create two auth0 tenants.
The first tenant (tenant 1) is the service provider, the second (tenant 2) is the identity provider.
In the section where we setup the second tenant I am having trouble understanding what is described in this line:
In this section you will configure one Auth0 tenant (tenant 2) to serve as an Identity Provider. You will do this by registering an application, but in this case, the 'application' you register is really a representation of tenant 1, the SAML Service Provider.
I'm confused about this because I thought the service provider is essentially a wrapper for all of the different applications you need to access through the IDP. So in my interpretation, I would think the application we create would exist inside the first tenant.
Would someone explain why in this example we set up the IDP to contain the application and how it is a representation of the service provider (tenant 1)?
Agree this article is somewhat confusing.
The key is "In this step, you will test your sample HTML application that uses the Auth0 SAML connection you set up in Tenant 1 to perform SSO via SAML against Tenant 2, serving as the SAML Identity Provider."
In SAML, there are two kinds of SP.
An SP can be an application so the path would be:
Application --> SAML IDP
or you can have an SP-STS (Security Token Service) i.e. an intermediate IDP acting as an SP.
Here the path is:
Application --> SAML SP --> SAML IDP
Basically, the SAML SP is just pass-through.
Normally what happens is that when you authenticate, the application redirects to the STS. You can authenticate here. However, if this STS knows that there is another STS upstream it will ask you via Home Realm Discovery which STS you want to use.
We have requirement of build .NET based plugin/component for enabling Authentication against multiple IDP providers like ADFS, Azure AD and Shibboleth based on DB configuration. i.e, depending on the configurable parameter the anonymous user will be authenticated against any one of the IDPs like ADFS, Azure AD or Shibboleth IDP.
Our application URL ("https://www.contoso.com/ProcessToken.aspx") will be registered as RP Identifier in all of the 3 providers.
We won't make any web.config changes for any of the providers.
At run time, User will access common page(Proesstoken.aspx) who needs to get redirected to the any of the Login page URLs at the provider (ADFS, Shibboleth, Azure) for Authentication based on User Organization. (For ex: User A to ADFS, User B to Shibboleth etc)
After Successful authentication at the IDPs the user needs to get redirected by the provider (ADFS/ Shibboleth/ Azure AD) to the RP Url registered.
In the redirected page (ProcessToken.aspx), we are planning to get the security token and decipher the claims required.
The main intention is to decouple authentication away from application logic and it should be extendable to other providers in future.
PS: Considered options like OWIN Authentication Middle Tier, .NET Component etc.
Need guidance on How and where to start.
Have a look at IdentityServer 3 which implements this multi-auth scenario or OWIN : ASP.NET MVC application with multiple authentication options.
The main point is that you use NuGet to download all the protocols you require and than use OWIN to pull them all in via app.use.
You can configure ADFS to have Claims Provider Trust with the other IDP's Owin will acknowledge the authentication. The difficult part will be reading the attributes from the tokens. ADFS under the covers in conjunction with the Owin framework use ws-federation, I have not figured out how to read the SAML.
What gets confusing is that at one time the answer was WIF but now that 4.51 has been released, WIF was moved into Owin. The documentation for a multi-tenant application is sketchy at best.
I have a web application which uses an identity provider for authentication in accordance with SAML 2.0 protocol.
Does this web application (service provider) have to validate a security token (provided by IdP when an user log in the web application) for each web server request.
In my opinion, there is no need to validate security token for each server request. The SAML protocol requires token validation only in necessary cases (authentication, authorization).
Am I right or od I have to implement token validation for each web server request?
No, the service provider does not need to validate the SAML assertion for every request.
SAML assertion contains information about the user, such as who the username is, how the user is authenticated by identity provider, and so on. Once the service provider obtains this SAML assertion from identity provider, it verifies the SAML assertion, and log-ins the user to the service provider. Once the user is logged-in, the user only needs to use the same authenticated session to access protected resource at the service provider. The user does not have to send SAML assertion.