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Sun Java System Access Manager 7.1 Federation and SAML Administration Guide

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Liberty Alliance Project

Sun Java™ System Access Manager implements identity federation, single sign-on (SSO), and web services specifications defined by the Liberty Alliance Project. This introductory chapter explains concepts used in the specifications, and the role of the Liberty Alliance Project in creating identity-based solutions. It covers the following topics:

Overview of the Liberty Alliance Project

In 2001 Sun Microsystems joined with other major companies to form the Liberty Alliance Project. The goals were to define standards for developing identity-based infrastructures, software, and web services, and to promote adoption of these standards. The Liberty Alliance Project does not deliver products or services. It defines frameworks to ensure interoperability between homogeneous products while respecting the privacy and security of identity data. This section contains the following information:

Note –

If you are already familiar with the concepts and protocols developed by the Liberty Alliance Project, go to Chapter 2, Implementation of the Liberty Alliance Project Specifications for information on how these standards are integrated into Access Manager.

Members of the Liberty Alliance Project

The members of the Liberty Alliance Project include some of the world’s most recognized companies, representing products, services and partnerships across a wide spectrum of consumer and business service providers. Members also include government organizations and technology vendors. For more information regarding membership (and a complete listing of current members), see the Liberty Alliance Project web site.

Note –

Only members of the Liberty Alliance Project are allowed to provide feedback on drafts of the specifications although any organization may implement them.

Objectives of the Liberty Alliance Project Specifications

The specifications developed by the Liberty Alliance Project enable individuals and organizations to securely conduct network transactions. The main objectives include:

Concept of Identity

In one dictionary, identity is defined as ”a set of information by which one person is definitively distinguished”. This information begins with a document that corroborates a person's name: a birth certificate. Over time, additional information further designates aspects of identity:

Each of these individual documents represents data that defines a person's identity as it relates to the enterprise for which the document was defined. The composite of this data constitutes an overall identity with each specific piece providing a distinguishing characteristic.

Because the Internet is becoming the primary vehicle for the types of interactions represented by this identity-defining information, people are now creating online identities specific to the businesses with which they interact. By defining a user identifier and password, an email address, personal preferences (such as style of music, or opt-in/opt-out marketing decisions) and other information more specific to the particular business (a bank account number or ship-to address), users distinguish themselves from others who use the enterprise’s services. This distinguishing information is referred to as a local identity because it is specific to the service provider for which it has been set.

Considering the number of service providers for which you can define a local identity, accessing each one can be a time-consuming and frustrating experiencing. In addition, although most local identities are configured independently (and fragmented across the Internet), it might be useful to connect the information. For example, a user's local identity with a bank could be securely connected to the same user's local identity with a retailer. Federation addresses this issue.

Concept of Federation

Federation is defined as ”an association formed by merging several groups or parties”. In the Liberty Alliance Project specifications, federation encompasses both identity federation and provider federation.

Identity Federation

Federation, as it has evolved with regard to individual users and the World Wide Web, begins with the notion of identity. (See Concept of Identity.) Sending and receiving email, checking bank balances, finalizing travel arrangements, accessing utility accounts, and shopping are just a few online services for which a user might define an identity. If a user accesses all of these services, many different identity accounts have been configured. This virtual phenomenon offers an opportunity to fashion a system for users to federate these identities.

Identity federation allows the user to link, connect, or bind the local identities that have been created for each service provider (a networked entity that provides services to other entities). The linked local identities, referred to as a federated identity, allow the user to log in to one service provider site and click through to an affiliated service provider without having to reauthenticate or reestablish identity.

Provider Federation

The concept of federation, as defined by the Liberty Alliance Project, begins with a ”circle of trust.” A circle of trust is a group of service providers who contractually agree to exchange authentication information using a Liberty-enabled architecture. Each circle of trust must also include at least one identity provider, a service provider that maintains and manages identity data, and provides authentication services.

Note –

The establishment of contractual agreements between providers is beyond the scope of this guide. See Concept of Trust for an overview.

After the contracts and policies defining a circle of trust are in place, the specific protocols, profiles, endpoints, and security mechanisms being used in the deployment are collected into a metadata document that is exchanged amongst the members of the circle of trust. Access Manager provides the tools necessary to integrate the metadata and enable the circle of trust, technologically, as an authentication domain. Authentication within this virtual federation is honored by all membered providers of the authentication domain. For more information, see Authentication Domain.

Concept of Trust

The Liberty Alliance Project specifications assume existing trust relationships between members in a circle of trust. This trust is usually defined through business arrangements or contracts that describe the technical, operational, and legal responsibilities of each party and the consequences for not completing them. When defined, a trust relationship allows one organization to trust the user authentication and authorization decisions of another organization. This trust then enables a user to log in to one site and, if desired, access a trusted site without reauthentication.

Ensure that these trust agreements are in force before going live with a Liberty-compliant system. The Liberty Alliance Project has created a support document for helping to establish these arrangements. The Liberty Trust Model Guidelines document is located on the Support Documents and Utility Schema Files page on the Liberty Alliance Project web site.

Liberty Alliance Project Terms

Many of the concepts defined in this section are derived from the specifications discussed in Liberty Alliance Project Specifications.

Account Federation

See Identity Federation.

Affiliation

An affiliation is a group of providers formed without regard to their configured authentication domains. An affiliation is formed and maintained by an affiliation owner. Members of an affiliation may invoke services either as a member of the affiliation (by virtue of their Affiliation ID) or individually (by virtue of their Provider ID). An affiliation document describes a group of providers. See Entities for more information.

Attribute Provider

An attribute provider is a web service that hosts attribute data. The Access Manager Liberty Personal Profile Service data service is an example of an attribute provider. For more information, see Chapter 7, Data Services.

Authentication Context

Authentication context refers to information added to a SAML Authentication Assertion regarding details of the technology used for the actual authentication action. This information might include the method of authentication (for example, HTTP Basic or Safeword), the process followed in the issuance of the identity (for example, web self-registration), and any other characteristics that may be relevant to the service provider consuming the assertion. The following code sample describes a user having authenticated with a password over an SSL-protected session.

Example 1–1 XML Code Sample Defining Authentication Context


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<AuthenticationContextStatement>
            <AuthenticationMethod>
                <PrincipalAuthenticationMethod>
                   <Password>
                      <Length min="3"/>
                   </Password>
                </PrincipalAuthenticationMethod>
                <AuthenticatorTransportProtocol>
                   <SSL/>
                </AuthenticatorTransportProtocol>
            </AuthenticationMethod>
<AuthenticationContextStatement>

More information is in Authentication and Authentication Context.

Authentication Domain

An authentication domain is a federation of service providers (with at least one identity provider) that is configured using Access Manager.

Note –

An authentication domain is not a domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) sense of the word.

Before an authentication domain can be configured, the service providers must contractually agree to exchange authentication information using the Liberty Alliance Project specifications. After this circle of trust is established, an authentication domain can be configured using Access Manager and single sign-on can be enabled. Simply put, an authentication domain is the term used by Access Manager when configuring a circle of trust. See Concept of Trust for related information.

Binding

A binding describes how to integrate request and response messages into a transmission protocol. See Profile and Protocol for related information.

Circle of Trust

See Provider Federation.

Client

A client is the role that any system entity assumes when making a request of another system entity. In this scenario, the system entity to which the request is made is called a server as discussed in Server.

Common Domain

If an authentication domain has more than one identity provider, the service providers need a way to determine which identity provider is used by the principal (as discussed in Principal). Because this function must work across any number of DNS domains, the Liberty approach is to create one domain that is common to all identity and service providers in the authentication domain. This predetermined domain is called the common domain. Within the common domain, when a principal has been authenticated to a service provider, the identity provider writes a common domain cookie that stores the principal’s identity provider. When the principal attempts to access another service provider within the authentication domain, the service provider reads the common domain cookie and the request is forwarded to the correct identity provider. See Chapter 4, Common Domain Services for Federation Management for more information.

Defederation

See Federation Termination.

Federation

See Concept of Federation.

Federation Cookie

A federation cookie called fedCookie is implemented by Access Manager. It can have a value of yes or no, based on the principal’s federation status. For information on how a federation cookie is used, see Process of Federation in Chapter 3, Federation.

Note –

The concept of a federation cookie was developed for Access Manager and is not a defined part of the Liberty Alliance Project specifications. The definition is placed here for information only.

Federated Identity

A federated identity refers to a user's consolidated local identities. The user must choose to federate the separate identities that they have configured with multiple service providers. Although federated, the local identities are still administered by the user, but they can be securely shared between the service providers for which they were defined.

Federation Termination

Users can terminate their federations. Federation termination (or defederation) cancels identity federations established between the user’s identity provider and service provider accounts.

Identity

See Concept of Identity.

Identity Federation

Identity federation occurs when a user chooses to unite distinct service provider accounts with one or more identity provider accounts. A user retains the individual account information with each provider while simultaneously establishing a link that allows the exchange of authentication information between them. For more information, see Concept of Federation.

Identity Provider

An identity provider is a service provider that specializes in providing authentication services. As the administrating service for authentication, an identity provider also maintains and manages identity information. Authentication by an identity provider is honored by all service providers with whom the identity provider is affiliated. This term is used when defining an entity of this sort specific to the Liberty Identity Federation Framework as discussed in Liberty Identity Federation Framework.

Identity Service

An identity service (also referred to as a data service or an attribute provider) is a web service that acts on a resource to retrieve, update, or perform some action on data attributes related to a principal (an identity). For example, an identity service might be a corporate phone book or calendar service. For more information, see Chapter 7, Data Services.

Liberty-Enabled Client

A Liberty-enabled client is a client that has, or knows how to obtain, information about the identity provider that a principal will use to authenticate to a service provider.

Liberty-Enabled Proxy

A Liberty-enabled proxy is an HTTP proxy that emulates a Liberty-enabled client.

Name Identifier

To help preserve anonymity when identity information is exchanged between identity providers and service providers, an arbitrary name identifier is used. A name identifier is a randomly generated character string that is assigned to a principal and used to facilitate account linking at the identity provider and service provider sites. This pseudonym allows all providers to identify a principal without knowing the user’s actual identity. The name identifier has meaning only in the context of the relationship between providers.

Principal

A principal is an entity that can acquire a federated identity, that is capable of making decisions, and has authenticated actions done on its behalf. Examples of principals include an individual user, a group of individuals, a corporation, other legal entities, or a component of the Liberty architecture.

Profile

A profile defines the HTTP exchanges required to transfer XML requests and responses between providers. See Binding and Protocol for related information.

Protocol

A protocol is an agreed-upon set of rules for formatting data to be transmitted between two or more devices. XML schemas define the syntax for request and response messages that are typically embedded into other structures for transport. Among other things, a protocol can determine:

See Binding and Profile for related information.

Provider Federation

See Concept of Federation.

Pseudonym

See Name Identifier.

Receiver

A receiver is the role of a system entity when it receives a message sent by another system entity. In this scenario, the system entity from which the message is received is called a sender as discussed in Sender.

Resource Offering

In a discovery service, a resource offering defines associations between a piece of identity data and the service instance that provides access to it. See Chapter 8, Discovery Service.

Sender

A sender is the role donned by a system entity when it constructs and sends a message to another system entity. In this scenario, the system entity from which the message is received is called a receiver as discussed in Receiver.

Server

A server is the role that any system entity assumes when providing a service in response to a request from another system entity. In this scenario, the system entity from which the request is received is called a client as discussed in Client.

Note –

In order to provide a service to clients, a server will often be both a sender and a receiver.

Service Provider

A service provider is a commercial or not-for-profit organization that offers web-based services to a principal. This broad category can include Internet portals, retailers, transportation providers, financial institutions, entertainment companies, libraries, universities, and governmental agencies. This term is used when defining an entity of this sort specific to the Liberty Identity Federation Framework as discussed in Liberty Identity Federation Framework.

Single Logout

A single logout occurs when a user logs out of an identity provider or a service provider. By logging out of one provider, the user is logged out of all service providers or identity providers in that authentication domain.

Single Sign-On

Single sign-on is established when a user with a federated identity authenticates to an identity provider. If the user has previously opted-in for federation, access to affiliated service providers is available without having to reestablish identity.

Trusted Provider

A trusted provider is a generic term for one of a group of service and identity providers in an authentication domain. A user can transact and communicate with trusted providers in a secure environment.

Web Service Consumer

A web service consumer invokes the operations that a web service provides by making a request to a web service provider. This term is used when defining an entity of this sort specific to the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework as discussed in Liberty Identity Web Services Framework.

Web Service Provider

A web service provider implements a web service based on a request from a web service consumer. This term is used when defining an entity of this sort specific to the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework as discussed in Liberty Identity Web Services Framework.

Note –

A web service provider may run on the same Java virtual machine as the web service consumer that is using it.

Liberty Alliance Project Specifications

The Liberty Alliance Project develops and delivers specifications that enable federated network identity management. Using web redirection and open-source technologies such as SOAP and XML, they enable distributed, cross-domain interactions. The specifications are divided into the following components:

Liberty Identity Federation Framework

The Liberty Identity Federation Framework (Liberty ID-FF) defines a set of protocols, bindings, and profiles that provides a solution for identity federation, cross-domain authentication, and session management. This framework can be used to create a new identity management system or to develop one in conjunction with legacy systems. This section contains information regarding the Liberty ID-FF.

More detailed information about the Liberty ID-FF 1.2 specifications can be found on the Liberty Alliance Project web site at the Liberty Alliance ID-FF 1.2 Specifications page.

The Liberty ID-FF Model

The Liberty ID-FF is designed to work with heterogeneous platforms, various networking devices (including personal computers, mobile phones, and personal digital assistants), and emerging technologies. The following figure shows the subjects involved in a Liberty ID-FF implementation.

Figure 1–1 Subjects Involved in a Liberty ID-FF Implementation

An image illustrating the Liberty Identity Federation Framework model.

The Liberty ID-FF Convergence

Up to version 1.1, the Liberty ID-FF was developed using the SAML 1.0 specification. The Liberty ID-FF 1.2 was then developed using the SAML 1.1 specification. Following the release of version 1.2, the Liberty ID-FF was reintroduced into the SAML 2.0 specification. Additionally, SAML 2.0 adds components of the Shibboleth initiative. Going forward, SAML 2.0 will be the basis on which the Liberty Alliance Project builds additional federated identity applications (such as web service-enabled permissions-based attribute sharing). As such, SAML 2.0 is a critical step towards full convergence of federated identity standards. The following diagram illustrates the convergence history of SAML and the Liberty ID-FF.

Figure 1–2 Liberty ID-FF and SAML Convergence

Illustration of Liberty ID-FF and SAML convergence

For more information on this convergence (including how the Shibboleth Project was also integrated), see the Federation section of Strategic Initiatives on the Liberty Alliance Project web site.

Liberty ID-FF Protocols and Schema

The Liberty ID-FF Protocols and Schema Specifications defines transmission formats for the following functions:

Following are short explanations of each protocol. More detailed information can be found in the Liberty ID-FF Protocols and Schema Specifications.

Single Sign-On and Federation Protocol

The Single Sign-On and Federation Protocol defines the rules for request and response messages with which a principal is able to authenticate to one or more service providers and federate (or link) configured identities. When a principal attempts to access a service provider resource, the service provider issues a request for authentication to the principal's identity provider. The identity provider responds with a message that contains authentication information, or an artifact that points to authentication information.

Note –

Under certain conditions, an identity provider may issue an authentication response to a service provider without having received an authentication request.

The Single Sign-On and Federation Protocol also defines elements for inclusion in the request and response that control the following behaviors:

Name Registration Protocol

The optional Name Registration Protocol defines the request and response messages a service provider would use to create its own opaque handle to identify a principal when communicating with the identity provider. This registration would occur after federation has been accomplished. After the service provider registers this new handle, subsequent communications with the identity provider would use this identifier rather than the identifier originally defined by the identity provider.

Caution – Caution –

The handle discussed in this section is not related to the opaque handle that is generated by the identity provider during federation as defined in Single Sign-On and Federation Protocol. The Name Registration Protocol can, however, be used by the identity provider to change the opaque handle that it registered with the service provider during initial federation.

Federation Termination Notification Protocol

The Federation Termination Notification Protocol defines a one-way message that one provider would use to notify another provider when a principal has terminated identity federation. The message is asynchronous and states one of the following:

Single Logout Protocol

The Single Logout Protocol defines the request and response messages that providers would exchange when notifying each other of logout events. This exchange would terminate all sessions when a logout occurs at either the service provider or the identity provider.

Name Identifier Mapping Protocol

The Name Identifier Mapping Protocol defines the request and response messages that one service provider can use to communicate with a second service provider to obtain the name identifier assigned to a principal federated in the name space of the second service provider. This would be used when a principal authenticated to one service provider requests access to a second service provider site with which it also has an identity federation relationship. The protocol allows the second service provider to communicate with the first service provider about the principal even though no identity federation for the principal exists between the two service providers.

Liberty ID-FF Bindings and Profiles

The Liberty ID-FF Bindings and Profiles Specification defines the bindings and profiles for the request and response messages explained in Liberty ID-FF Protocols and Schema. A binding describes how to integrate request and response messages into a transmission protocol. Currently, this specification defines only a SOAP binding. A profile defines the HTTP exchanges required to transfer the requests and responses between providers. The defined profiles are:

For more information about these profiles and transmission of requests and responses in general, see the Liberty ID-FF Bindings and Profiles Specification.

Additional Liberty ID-FF Documents

For additional information about the Liberty ID-FF specifications, the following documents are available on the Liberty ID-FF 1.2 specification page.

Liberty Identity Web Services Framework

The Liberty ID-FF defines how to implement single sign-on and identity federation to solve problems related to network identity. The Liberty Identity Web Services Framework (Liberty ID-WSF) builds on this by providing specifications for identity-based web services to work in tandem with the Liberty ID-FF. (An identity-based web service, or identity service, is a type of web service that acts upon a resource to retrieve information about an identity, update information about an identity, or perform some action for the benefit of an identity.) The Liberty ID-WSF can be used to develop web services that retrieve, update, or perform an action on identity data in a federated network environment using a SOAP-based invocation. The web services include, among others, a calendar service, a wallet service, and an alert service. A scenario that implements these specifications includes the following subjects:

Note –

For more information about the process between a WSC and WSP, see Discovery Service Process.

The following sections contain brief explanations of the Liberty ID-WSF 1.1 specifications.

More detailed information about the Liberty ID-WSF specifications can be found on the Liberty Alliance Project web site.

SOAP Binding Specification

The Liberty ID-WSF SOAP Binding Specification provides a transport layer framework for handling the request and response messages used by the Liberty ID-WSF services. It defines a mapping for the messages onto SOAP, an extensible XML-based messaging protocol by specifying, for example, how to:

For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF SOAP Binding Specification.

Discovery Service Specification

The Liberty ID-WSF Discovery Service Specification defines a framework that enables a client to locate the appropriate web service for retrieving, updating, or modifying a particular piece of identity data. Typically, there are one or more services on a network that allow entities to perform an action on identity data. To keep track of these services or to know which can be trusted, clients require access to a discovery service. A discovery service is an identity service that acts as a registry of resource offerings. A resource offering defines an association between a particular piece of identity data and the instance of a web service that provides access to the data. With access to the discovery service, the client is able to discover which web service must be contacted to then access the desired identity data. A common use case is when personal profile or calendar data is placed within a resource offering so that the data can be located by other entities. For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF Discovery Service Specification.

Security Mechanisms Specification

To access an identity service, an entity must interact with a discovery service to locate the appropriate identity service as well as the specific identity service instance that exposes the resource. The Liberty ID-WSF Security Mechanisms Specification describes mechanisms (providing authentication, signing and encryption operations) that can be used to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the authorization messages exchanged when evaluating the entity's authorization to access the discovery service and identity service instance. These mechanisms consider:

For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF Security Mechanisms Specification.

Data Services Template Specification

A data service is a web service that supports the query and modification of identity data. (An example of a data service is an identity service, such as an online corporate directory.) The Liberty ID-WSF Data Services Template Specification provides a protocol for the query and modification of the data attributes stored in a data service. The service interface specifications defined by the Liberty Alliance Project are based on this Data Services Template. For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF Data Services Template Specification. For more information on the service interface specifications, see Liberty Identity Service Interface Specifications.

Interaction Service Specification

The Liberty ID-WSF Interaction Service Specification provides communication protocols for identity services to use when they must obtain permission from a principal (or someone who owns a resource on behalf of that principal) to allow the principal's identity data to be shared with requesting services. For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF Interaction Service Specification.

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:

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.

Client Profiles Specification

The Liberty ID-WSF Client Profiles Specification describes the requirements for Liberty-enabled clients that interact with the SOAP-based Authentication Service. Client profiles can enable browsers to perform an active role in transactions, in addition to the functions of a standard browser. For more information, see the Liberty ID-WSF Client Profiles Specification.

Additional Liberty ID-WSF Documents

For additional information about the Liberty ID-WSF specifications, the following documents are available on the Liberty ID-WSF 1.1 specification page.

Liberty Identity Service Interface Specifications

The Liberty Identity Service Interface Specifications (Liberty ID-SIS) are for building identity-based web services. Included in the Liberty ID-SIS 1.0 are the following:

More detailed information about the service interface specifications can be found on the Liberty Alliance Project web site.

Liberty ID-SIS Personal Profile Service Specification

The Liberty ID-SIS Personal Profile Service Specification defines an identity-based web service that keeps, updates, and offers identity data regarding a user. This service queries and updates of attribute data and incorporates mechanisms for access control and conveying data validation information and usage directives from other specifications. A shopping portal that offers information such as the principal’s account number and shopping preferences is an example of a personal profile service. For more information, see the Liberty ID-SIS Personal Profile Service Specification.

Liberty ID-SIS Employee Profile Service Specification

The Liberty ID-SIS Employee Profile Service Specification defines an identity-based web service that keeps, updates, and offers profile information regarding a user’s workplace. An online corporate phone book that provides an employee name, office building location, and telephone extension number is an example of an employee profile service. For more information, see the Liberty ID-SIS Employee Profile Service Specification.

Additional Liberty ID-SIS Service Specifications

The Liberty Alliance Project defines several other service interface specifications not discussed in this section, including a contact book, a geolocation service, and a presence service. For more information on these services, see the Liberty ID-SIS Specifications page.

Schema Files and Service Definition Documents

The Liberty Alliance Project has created a number of XML Schema Definition (XSD) files and Web Services Description Language (WSDL) documents to complement the specifications. XSD files specify the information that the corresponding service can host by defining the data and data structure. Typically, this structure is hierarchical and has one root node. Individual branches of the structure can be accessed separately, and the whole structure can be accessed by pointing to the root node. The data might be stored in implementation-specific ways. However, the data will be exposed by the service using the XML schema and the WSDL definition of the service type.

Note –

The purpose of an XML schema is to describe the structure of an XML document. The XML schema file format is XSD. XSD is an XML-based alternative to the Document Type Definition (DTD) format. A DTD also describes the structure of an XML document, but it is not in the XML format.

The WSDL definition is XML-based and describes how to communicate with the web service; namely, protocol bindings and message formats. In simpler terms, the WSDL for a specific service describes the public interface for that web service. The available XSD files and WSDL documents specific to the previously described specifications can be found on the Liberty Alliance Project web site.

Support Documents

The Liberty Alliance Project has also created a number of support documents including a metadata service protocol, reverse HTTP bindings, and a glossary. A listing of these documents and the appropriate links can be found on the Support Documents and Utility Schema Files page.