Authentication Service Specification

The Liberty ID-WSF Authentication Service Specification defines how to authenticate parties communicating via SOAP request and response messages. It leverages widely used authentication services and mechanisms, and facilitates selection of these services and mechanisms at deployment time. The specification defines:

• An authentication protocol based on the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL).

• An authentication service that Liberty-enabled clients can use to authenticate with identity providers.

• A single sign-on service that Liberty-enabled providers can use to interact with each other.

The specification also defines an identity-based authentication security token service, complementing the more general security token service as discussed in the section, Discovery Service Specification. For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF Authentication Service Specification.