Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Technical Overview

Authentication Service

The Authentication Service provides the functionality to request user credentials and validate them against a specified authentication data store. Upon successful authentication, it creates a session data structure for the user that can be validated across all web applications participating in an SSO environment. Several authentication modules are supplied with OpenSSO Enterprise, and new modules can be plugged-in using the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) SPI.


Note –

The Authentication Service is based on the JAAS specification, a set of API that enables services to authenticate and enforce access controls upon users. See the Java Authentication and Authorization Service Reference Guide for more information.


Components of the Authentication Service include:

The Authentication Service interacts with both the database that stores user credentials (authentication data store) to validate the user, and with the Identity Repository Service plug-ins to retrieve user profile attributes. When the Authentication Service determines that a user’s credentials are genuine, a valid user session token is issued, and the user is said to be authenticated. Figure 2–4 illustrates how the local and remote authentication components interact within a OpenSSO Enterprise deployment.

Figure 2–4 Authentication Service Components Within a OpenSSO Enterprise Deployment

Authentication components within the Authentication Service framework

More information on the architecture of the Authentication Service can be found in the Authentication Service Architecture document on the OpenSSO web site.