Baseline Expectations for Trust in Federation

Baseline Expectations Foundational Documents

Baseline Expectations for Trust in Federation

Baseline Implementation: Community Dispute Resolution Process

Baseline Expectations Health Checks

Baseline Expectations

Under the guidance of the InCommon Community Trust and Assurance Board, the InCommon community has adopted a set of Baseline Expectations for Trust in Federation. The intent is to:

• improve interoperability among InCommon Participants
• ensure that the Federation has a common level of trust by establishing expectations that all Participants agree to meet.

In addition to the expectations themselves, the community has adopted processes by which InCommon Participants and the InCommon Federation operator keep metadata up to date and keep one-another accountable, including:

• Automated checks of metadata by InCommon to give feedback to each Participant about their entities
• A process for reaching community consensus on practices that meet the expectations
• A process for Participants to raise Baseline Expectations-related and other concerns and get them resolved

The core Baseline Expectations document establishes three short lists of expectations expressed at a high level, one for each of three types of Federation actor: an Identity Provider, a Service Provider, and a Federation Operator.

Baseline Expectations of Identity Providers

1. The IdP is operated with organizational-level authority
2. The IdP is trusted enough to be used to access the organization’s own systems
3. Generally-accepted security practices are applied to the IdP
4. Federation metadata is accurate, complete, and includes:
   1. contacts in metadata (technical, administrative and security)
   2. MDUI information
   3. privacy policy URL
   4. a federated error handling URL
   5. an HTTPS link to a logo for the IdP

Baseline Expectations of Service Providers

1. Controls are in place to reasonably secure information and maintain user privacy
2. Information received from IdPs is not shared with third parties without permission and is stored only when necessary for SP’s purpose
3. Generally-accepted security practices are applied to the SP
4. Federation metadata is accurate, complete, and includes:
   1. contacts in metadata (technical, administrative and security)
   2. MDUI information
   3. privacy policy URL
   4. an HTTPS link to a logo for the SP
5. Unless governed by an applicable contract, attributes required to obtain service are appropriate and made known publicly

Baseline Expectations of Federation Operators

1. Focus on trustworthiness of their Federation as a primary objective and be transparent about such efforts
2. Generally-accepted security practices are applied to the Federation’s operational systems
3. Good practices are followed to ensure accuracy and authenticity of metadata to enable secure and trustworthy federated transactions
4. Frameworks that improve trustworthy use of Federation, such as entity categories, are implemented and adoption by Members is promoted
5. Work with relevant Federation Operators to promote realization of baseline expectations