Comparison of SAML and Liberty Specifications

SAML was designed to address the issue of cross-domain single sign-on. The Liberty Alliance Project was formed to develop technical specifications that would solve business process problems. These issues include single sign-on, but also incorporate protocols for account linking and consent, among others. SAML, on the other hand, does not solve issues such as privacy, single logout, and federation termination.

The SAML 1.0 and 1.1 specifications and the Liberty Alliance Project specifications do not compete with one another. They are complementary. In fact, the Liberty Alliance Project specifications leverage profiles from the SAML specifications. The decision of whether to use SAML or the Liberty specifications depends on your goal. In general, SAML should suffice for single sign-on basics. The Liberty Alliance Project specifications can be used for more sophisticated functions and capabilities, such as global sign-out, attribute sharing, web services. The following table compares the benefits of the two.

Table 10–1 Comparison of the SAML and Liberty Alliance Project Specifications

SAML Uses	Liberty Alliance Project Uses
Cross-domain single sign-on	Single sign-on only after user federation
No user federation	User federation
No privacy control, best for use within one company	Built on top of SAML
User identifier is sent in plain text	User identifier is sent as a unique handle

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Note –

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) drives the development of SAML. For information and specifications, see the OASIS Security Services (SAML) Technical Committee home page.

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