Configure a Shibboleth IdP to Support R and S

To support the Research and Scholarship Category, an IdP has at least two options:

1. Release a fixed subset of the R&S attribute bundle (or the R&S bundle itself) to all R&S SPs
2. Release a dynamic subset of the R&S attribute bundle to each R&S SP on an SP-by-SP basis

See the sections below for detailed instructions.

Once you've configured your IdP to release attributes to all R&S SPs (both present and future) as described below, you should optimize your IdP configuration files by removing all references to the entity IDs of R&S SPs. (That is, in fact, the whole point of using entity attributes for describing attribute release policy.)

Contents:

Software Requirements

To release attributes to all R&S SPs with a single configuration, an IdP leverages entity attributes (instead of entity IDs). Thus the configuration steps documented here require Shibboleth IdP v2.3.4 or later, which fully supports using entity attributes in SP metadata as part of an attribute release filter policy.

Note: The attribute filter policies shown in the following sections are based on an exact match of an entity attribute. In the Shibboleth IdP, an attribute filter policy may be based on a regex match of an entity attribute as well.

No other SAML IdP software is known to support entity attributes at this time.

Release a Fixed Subset of the R&S Bundle

An IdP may support R&S by releasing at least the minimal subset of the R&S attribute bundle to all R&S SPs. Both examples in this section illustrate such a configuration.

The configuration based on entity attributes in the next subsection is a one-time operation. In contrast, the configuration produced by the XSLT script in the following subsection must be performed every time a new R&S SP is added to InCommon metadata. Clearly the configuration based on entity attributes is preferred.

For Shib IdPs v2.3.4 and higher

To release a fixed subset of the R&S bundle (or the complete bundle itself), configure a new <AttributeFilterPolicy> element that refers to the R&S entity attribute. The following example releases a subset of the R&S bundle to all R&S SPs:

<AttributeFilterPolicy id="releaseToRandS">

  <PolicyRequirementRule xsi:type="saml:AttributeRequesterEntityAttributeExactMatch"
      attributeName="http://macedir.org/entity-category"
      attributeValue="http://id.incommon.org/category/research-and-scholarship"/>

  <AttributeRule attributeID="eduPersonPrincipalName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="email">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="displayName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="givenName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="surName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>

</AttributeFilterPolicy>

To release some other subset of the R&S bundle, simply customize the above example to match your policy.

For Shib IdPs prior to v2.3.4

Old versions of the Shib IdP don't support entity attributes so we provide an XSLT script that extracts the entity IDs of the R&S SPs. Run the script (InCommonRandSPolicy.xsl) at the command line as follows:

$ curl --silent http://wayf.incommonfederation.org/InCommon/InCommon-metadata.xml \
    | xsltproc InCommonRandSPolicy.xsl - \
    | tidy -quiet -xml -indent -wrap 0

The output will include a listing of the entity IDs of all R&S SPs found in the metadata file:

<AttributeFilterPolicy id="releaseToRandS">

  <PolicyRequirementRule xsi:type="basic:OR">
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://carmenwiki.osu.edu/shibboleth" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://filesender.internet2.edu/shibboleth" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://wikispaces.psu.edu/shibboleth" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://www.indianactsi.org" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://cilogon.org/shibboleth" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://cgca.phys.uwm.edu/shibboleth-sp" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://panther.gpolab.bbn.com/shibboleth" />
    <basic:Rule xsi:type="basic:AttributeRequesterString" value="https://ligo.org/ligovirgo/cbcnote/shibboleth-sp" />
    <!-- etc. -->
  </PolicyRequirementRule>

  <AttributeRule attributeID="eduPersonPrincipalName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="email">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="displayName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="givenName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="surName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
  </AttributeRule>

</AttributeFilterPolicy>

Modify the script to release some other subset of the R&S attribute bundle according to policy.

Release a Dynamic Subset of the R&S Bundle

To dynamically release a subset of the R&S bundle to each R&S SP on an SP-by-SP basis, configure a new <AttributeFilterPolicy> element that refers to the R&S entity attribute but limits attribute release to the <md:RequestedAttribute> elements in SP metadata. This requires the following two-step configuration process:

1. Install and configure a general-purpose plugin that limits attribute release to the <md:RequestedAttribute> elements in SP metadata.
2. Configure a new <AttributeFilterPolicy> element for R&S SPs.

These two configuration steps taken together constrain the release of attributes to precisely those attributes requested by R&S SPs (assuming those attributes constitute a subset of the R&S bundle).

Install and Configure the Plugin

The uApprove addon to the Shibboleth IdP includes a plugin that limits attribute release to the <md:RequestedAttribute> elements in SP metadata.

To install and configure the plugin, perform the following steps:

1. Download and unpack the uApprove package
2. Copy the IdP plugin to your IdP build directory:
   $ cp $UAPPROVE_INSTALL$/idp-plugin-2.2.1/lib/* $IDP_INSTALL$/lib/
3. Rebuild the IdP
4. Add the namespace declaration xmlns:ua="http://www.switch.ch/aai/idp/uApprove/mf" to the <AttributeFilterPolicy> element (or better yet, to the parent <AttributeFilterPolicyGroup> element).
5. Add the following at the end of the whitespace delimited list of values for the xsi:schemaLocation attribute:http://www.switch.ch/aai/idp/uApprove/mf classpath:/schema/uApprove-mf.xsd.

The plugin adds a new PermitValueRule of type ua:AttributeInMetadata.

Configure a New AttributeFilterPolicy

The following IdP configuration implicitly releases attributes to any R&S SP. An attribute is released if and only if it is listed in SP metadata.

<AttributeFilterPolicy id="releaseToRandS" xmlns:ua="http://www.switch.ch/aai/idp/uApprove/mf">

  <PolicyRequirementRule xsi:type="saml:AttributeRequesterEntityAttributeExactMatch"
      attributeName="http://macedir.org/entity-category"
      attributeValue="http://id.incommon.org/category/research-and-scholarship"/>

  <AttributeRule attributeID="eduPersonPrincipalName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="ua:AttributeInMetadata" onlyIfRequired="false"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="email">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="ua:AttributeInMetadata" onlyIfRequired="false"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="displayName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="ua:AttributeInMetadata" onlyIfRequired="false"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="givenName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="ua:AttributeInMetadata" onlyIfRequired="false"/>
  </AttributeRule>
  <AttributeRule attributeID="surName">
    <PermitValueRule xsi:type="ua:AttributeInMetadata" onlyIfRequired="false"/>
  </AttributeRule>

</AttributeFilterPolicy>

The attributes shown above constitute a maximal subset of the R&S bundle. Simply customize the above example to match your policy.