DRAFT
Technical implementation of identity assurance requires system changes from InCommon Operations, IdPs, and SPs. This page captures lessons learned, recommended practices, and outstanding issues regarding the technical aspects of identity assurance.
Participation in the InCommon Identity Assurance Program requires the use of SAML V2.0 Web Browser SSO. IdP and SP operators should plan to upgrade to SAML V2.0 as soon as possible. |
SAML's support for the concept of identity assurance is found in a concept called "Authentication Context". The context of an authentication event is designed to capture both technical and procedural elements that factor into the "confidence" expressed by the identity provider in the event. In terms of assurance, this maps to the concepts of technical strength and identity proofing strength that make up an assurance profile.
Every authentication statement issued by an IdP contains an <saml:AuthnContext> element that expresses the information. There are a variety of syntaxes supported, but the most common one is to define a "class" of authentication contexts that all share essential characteristics that are of interest to a relying party. These classes are mapped to URI constants that are expressed in an element called <saml:AuthnContextClassRef>, of which a single value can be expressed by the IdP.
In addition, SAML 2.0 SPs have the capability to include simple or complex matching requirements in their authentication requests that influence the Authentication Context supplied by the IdP. The intent is to allow IdPs that support varying levels of assurance to honor requests based on the requirements of the SP and not a one-size-fits-all policy. In practice, this approach can be tricky to implement and may depend on customization of one's software deployment.
Thus, we expect assurance implementation to be gradual, and we will continue to evolve documentation to reflect what we learn. We also encourage deployers to talk to their software suppliers about the support (or lack thereof) of these features.
InCommon Operations will add identity assurance qualifiers (IAQs) to published metadata following notification of certification by InCommon management. IAQs will be added to the appropriate IdP entity descriptor of the certified IdP operator (IdPO).
Participants are not obligated to enforce policies or otherwise make use of these qualifiers, but they are provided so that supporting software may be configured to make use of the information when processing assertions containing assurance qualifiers.
Proposed IAQ URIs are:
Silver: http://id.incommon.org/assurance/silver
Bronze: http://id.incommon.org/assurance/bronze
There will likely be a need for non-production IAQs for use in interoperability testing, probably with test instances of metadata:
Silver: http://id.incommon.org/assurance/silver-test
Bronze: http://id.incommon.org/assurance/bronze-test
Note that all of the above URIs will resolve to actual web pages at some point.
IAQs in metadata
The following extension is the immediate child element of the IdP's <md:EntityEescriptor> element in metadata:
<md:Extensions xmlns:md="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata">
<mdattr:EntityAttributes xmlns:mdattr="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:metadata:attribute">
<saml:Attribute
xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion"
NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri"
Name="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:attribute:assurance-certification">
<saml:AttributeValue>http://id.incommon.org/assurance/silver-test</saml:AttributeValue>
<saml:AttributeValue>http://id.incommon.org/assurance/bronze-test</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
</mdattr:EntityAttributes>
</md:Extensions>
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The <mdattr:EntityAttributes> element and the name of the SAML Attribute (urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:attribute:assurance-certification) are defined by the OASIS specification entitled SAML V2.0 Metadata Extension for Entity Attributes and the OASIS SAML V2.0 Identity Assurance Profiles, respectively.
A complete, working metadata sample is attached to this wiki topic. To schema validate this sample metadata, you can use XmlSecTool:
xmlsectool.sh --validateSchema \
--schemaDirectory schema-files --inFile incommon-idp-metadata.xml
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For convenience, we provide a set of (suitably modified) schema files that permit offline schema validation.
Ideally SPs that require a particular assurance level will initiate the assurance flow by including the desired IAQ in the SAML AuthnRequest element.
SPs will receive IAQs (either in response to a specific request, or sent unsolicited) in assertions from IdPs. SPs should use metadata to check that the IdP is authorized to assert the IAQs being asserting.
SPs will rely on local policy to decide how to handle incoming IAQs. For example if the SP requires InCommon Bronze but receives InCommon Silver, that is probably acceptable.
authnContextClassRef setting to control the value requested when particular resources are accessed. To include multiple values in a request, the AuthnRequest "template" mechanism described in the SessionInitiator documentation can be used.<saml:Attribute> elements in IdP metadata. Other approaches?
This simple example shows how a Service Provider can request a silver-test assurance from an IdP which has been configured as shown in the IAQs in metadata section above.
See Assurance - Identity Provider Behavior.
