What is SAML2 ?
What is SAML 2.0 ?
- SAML 2.0 stands for Security Assertion Markup Language version 2.0
- SAML 2.0 is an XML-based protocol
- SAML 2.0 is an OASIS Standard which specifies a protocol for enabling cross-domain single sign-on (SSO).
- SAML 2.0 uses security tokens containing assertions to pass information about an end user between an identity provider, and a service provider.
- SAML 2.0 is used for enabling web-based authentication and authorization
Why do you need SAML 2.0 ?
SAML 2.0 enables identity propagation of an authenticated user between a company’s identity provider and a third-party service. It is needed for integrating an enterprise’s existing single sign-on (SSO) with third-party ( cloud based) service providers. Thus authentication can be performed with the company’s own identity provider. Its
employees/partners (or authenticated users) are required to authenticate only once to a web site but can subsequently log-in to many services without having to re-type there passwords again.
How does SAML 2.0 work ?
For understanding the complete details of how the protocol work please refer the following links, they provide the comprehensive sequence diagram of interactions, metadata structure of objects used:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAML_2.0
2. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/se-sso/