I am creating a SAML 2.0 app in OKTA developer account, after creation when I go look at IdentityProvider metadata I always see WantAuthnRequestsSigned="false" how can I set it to WantAuthnRequestSigned to true?
Okta doesn't support signed requests. Neither does Onelogin. I've never asked why, it seems the IDaaS platforms have consolidated on signed authentication requests being a waste of time.
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I have been looking into using an identity provider (IDP) to provide user authentication for a Windows Forms client. The user credentials will be hosted by Auth0. After creating a trial account with Auth0 I have downloaded a sample C# Windows Forms client application that can be used to authenticate to the Auth0 IDP using OpenID Connect ("OIDC"). The WinForms sample application pops up a web browser component, displays the Auth0 login screen, I login to the Auth0 IDP (having setup some test credentials in Auth0) and the WinForms application then is sent an authentication token. All well and good, and if I try to login a second time I no longer need to enter my credentials.
However... the company that I will be fetching authentication data from in production would like to use SAML. Is there any way to do this? Based on what I have read, SAML needs a "Service Provider" that will receive credentials from the IDP. The Service Provider is (typically?) a web site. That does not seem to match very well with what I am trying to do (authenticate a windows client). Is there any way of using SAML to do essentially what I have done using OIDC (fetch authentication information for a user from an IDP)? Would I need to develop a separate Service Provider component for this?
Sounds like what you've done so far is fine architecturally:
A modern desktop app following OIDC standards
This puts you in a good position architecturally, where:
Your app gets tokens from Auth0 using OIDC
Auth0 can reach out and do federated authentication with other standards based identity providers, which could be SAML, OIDC, WS-Federation or anything else
This can be done without changing any code in your app - and your app does not need to understand SAML
Feels like you need to set up a federated connection from Auth0 to the SAML Service Provider, and most commonly this involves these steps:
You give the partner your Entity Id and Response URL, to post tokens to
They give you am Entity Id, Public Key Certificate and request URL
You configure rules around account linking, so that users can be matched between their system and yours
There are prerequisites though, and the external identity provider needs to be SAML 2.0 compliant. My Federated Logins Article may help you to understand the general concepts, though I do not drill into SAML details here.
I am trying to integrate Salesforce with AAD, so I see two available options, either Saml or OpenId Connect.. I do not know which one is better, but I prefer OpenId Connect since it seems to be more modern. So I tried to register Salesforce App in AAD and Saml was the default options, so why is Saml the default option ?! is it better or what? Please note that I am building an API and I need to allow authentication and authorization with Single Sign On.
The Azure AD app gallery contains many popular applications that are already pre-configured to work with Azure AD as an identity provider. These applications will be available in the Enterprise applications and have SAML to perform SSO. Any application which is added directly from the Gallery the default method is SAML based SSO , password based SSO etc.. which depends upon the applications.
Kindly check the difference between the App Registration and Gallery application in Azure portal from the link
In order to get more detailed explanation about SSO types and protocols kindly check the document to get more detailed explanation.
If you have any further queries kindly let me know.
I have an issue where SSO link based on SAML is failing due to the fact IdP signing certificates are constantly changing.
I (as SP) have a configuration which is based on IdP's federation metadata, it has two signing certificates (X509). Things are working as expected.
Few weeks later, SSO link is broken due to the fact IdP is returning SAML Response with different signing certificate. I checke it's metadata, yep different signing certificates.
How do I implement my end (as SP) that my SAML Request includes x509 being used by IdP?
As well, is it common practice for IdP to constantly change singing certificates? I never had this issue before and I have a handful year-old SSO integration based on the same strategy: exchange of metadata. Is it possible to configure at IdP so that certificates are not being changed?
The IdP is Azure AD.
I (as SP) am using OneLogin PHP toolkit.
My app was configured as non gallery application.
The approach you took - configure non-gallery application give you the full control over the SAML integration. With your full control comes also your full responsibility.
To your question:
is it common practice for IdP to constantly change singing
certificates?
Yes, it is common and good practice. Well, not every two weeks, but at most an year.
Coming back to your changed signing certificate. The link that used in your original question (this one) has an explicit section about certificate. The section is called Review certificate expiration data, status, and email notification. This explains about the certificates. If you continue to read through the same section you will end up seeing another reference: Manage certificates for federated single sign-on in Azure Active Directory, where you will find even more information about certificate management in the IdP side.
Sorry I am still very confused, read everywhere telling me oath is a authorisation protocol but it appears using the azure ad oauth code grant, it does promote a login screen to authenticate against the directory, so is it not an authentication process? what is the relationship between the open id connect? thanks!!
the OAuth2.0 protocol has several flows that an identity provider (in your case Azure AD) may implement to support auth.
The Auth Code flow is in fact one of these used by apps to get access tokens for some api. The flow is quite simple, an app redirects the user to the identity providers /authorize endpoint. At this point the user enters their credentials, and the site redirects back to your application with an authorization code and can also issue an ID Token that represents a user (This is the OpenID Connect part). The app takes this code, and POSTs it to the /token endpoint and will be issued an access token and refresh token. With the access token, your app can access whatever api you've requested access for.
For Azure AD specifically, Microsoft has built libraries that handle all these flows and token caching so most of the complexity is abstracted away. There's some simple code samples that you can checkout that you may find helpful. The authentication protocols and scenarios doc for Azure AD may also be really helpful for conceptual information.
I have a basic question regarding SAML2. Typical flow is that user requests a resource from SP that is protected. SP checks if the user has a security context (say cookie ?), if it does not find a security context, it constructs the AuthRequest and then redirects the browser to the IdP. Now IdP likewise first checks if the user has an existing security context. How does the IdP do this? Does the IdP also use a cookie for this purpose?
Yes. For SAML Web SSO Profile the session is almost always kept as a cookie in the browser at the IDP and SP. However, there are no rules on how to manage this. The IDP could choose to not keep an active session and prompt the user to login for each SSO transaction.
Ian
#Ian - Great Answer. However if the IDP does not maintain a session cookie [B/W Browser and Identity Provider (IDP)] than you miss out on a significant benefit of single sign on (SSO). The SSO User Experience (UX) feature that would be lost is described in the following scenario:
0) Assume IDP is registered with Google Apps and Salesforce.
1) Open Browser. NOTE: SAML is browser based. You need a browser for SAML to work.
2) Try to go to Google Apps; (you have no existing session cookie [B/W Browser and Google Apps]) who then Re-directs you to the IDP.
3) You sign on with your valid IDP credentials.
4) the IDP then stores a session cookie [B/W Browser and IDP] in your browser. (This is the step that #Ian mentioned can be skipped by the IDP)
5) The IDP then redirects you back to Google Apps (via HTTP POST) with SAML token embedded in the POST. You are now in Google Apps. (Now you have a session cookie [B/W Browser and Google Apps] stored on your browser)
5) Try to go to Salesforce.
6) Salesforce sees you have no active session cookie[B/W Browser and Salesforce], so they redirect you to the IDP.
* here is my point of added User Experience (UX) *
7) The IDP will look for a session cookie [B/W Browser and IDP], if the IDP is configured to not store maintain one you have to enter your Single Sign On (SSO) aka IDP Credentials AGAIN.
Discussion on Step7: Entering the SSO credentials for each separate service an extra-step times the number of services you are using. I think the main draw of the implementation is to enter credentials only once and get access to everything (the topic of security aside). However if the IDP does not store a session cookie [B/W Browser and IDP] you are still only using one set of credentials (instead of separate credentials for each service), so life is still easier.
#Ajava - You seem to be confused as to how cookies are used. I hope you can follow my steps above and get better idea of how cookies are used with SAML.
Here is also a good link i found that explains cookies: http://lifehacker.com/5461114/fact-and-fiction-the-truth-about-browser-cookies