Attribute Mappers

An attribute mapper is used to associate attribute names passed in the <AttributeStatement> of an assertion. A default attribute mapper has been developed for both participants in the SAML v2 interaction, service providers and identity providers. They are defined in the extended metadata configuration files and explained in the following sections:

• IDPAttributeMapper

• SPAttributeMapper

If implementing a custom attribute mapper, change the value of the provider's Attribute Mapper property using the OpenSSO Enterprise console.

IDPAttributeMapper

The IDPAttributeMapper interface is used by the identity provider to specify which user attributes will be included in an assertion. The default implementation, com.sun.identity.saml2.plugins.DefaultIDPAttributeMapper, retrieves attribute mappings (SAML v2-attribute=user-attribute) defined in the attributeMap property in the identity provider's extended metadata configuration file. It reads the value of the user attribute from the identity provider's data store, and sets this value as the <AttributeValue> of the specified SAML v2 attribute. The SAML v2 attributes and values are then included in the <AttributeStatement> of the assertion and sent to the service provider. The value of attributeMap can be changed to modify the mapper's behavior without programming. The default mapper itself can be modified to attach any identity provider user attribute with additional programming.

The identity provider can also send different AttributeStatement elements for different service providers. To support this, define an attribute mapping in the remote service provider's metadata hosted on the identity provider side. This configuration will override the attribute mapping defined on the hosted identity provider itself. (The hosted identity provider configuration serves as the default if no attribute mapping is defined in the service provider metadata.

SPAttributeMapper

The SPAttributeMapper interface is used by the service provider to map attributes received in an assertion to its local attributes. The default implementation, com.sun.identity.saml2.plugins.DefaultSPAttributeMapper, retrieves the attribute mappings defined in the attributeMap property in the service provider's extended metadata configuration file. It extracts the value of the SAML v2 attribute from the assertion and returns a key/value mapping which will be set in the user's single sign-on token. The mapper can also be customized to choose user attributes from the local service provider datastore.

*=* is a special attribute mapping which can be defined for a service provider hosted on an instance of OpenSSO Enterprise only. (It is not valid for a remote service provider configured on the identity provider side.) It will map all the attribute names as presented in the Assertion. (It will keep the same name as in the AttributeStatement element. Enter this as a value of the Attribute Map property under the service provider configuration Assertion Processing tab.