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interfedoperation. Interoperating WS-Federation Jens Jensen, RAL OGF31/Taipei. What it is. WS-Federation: OASIS standard Version 1.2 (May 2009) Two modes “normal” mode – SOAP Passive mode – web So federating access rather than federation. Protocol Summary.
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interfedoperation Interoperating WS-Federation Jens Jensen, RAL OGF31/Taipei
What it is • WS-Federation: OASIS standard • Version 1.2 (May 2009) • Two modes • “normal” mode – SOAP • Passive mode – web • So federating access rather than federation
Protocol Summary • Bring together IdPs and SPs • Similar to Shib, but looser federation • More flexible in some ways • E.g. redirects to other IdPs • Metadata discovery • Establishing trust between trust domains
Objective – Plan A • STS in Azure • IdP running inside Azure • (could have been Pistoia customer) • SP running at RAL • Needed OS SP for Apache • Using pingidentity for Apache
Result • It didn’t work, went on to Plan B • We made it better, but not working • Ran out of time/funding • Could pick up again later • Made squillions of lab notes (mostly paper)
Specifics • Open Source client not maintained • Using old namespaces • Written for Apache 2.0 (should work for 2.2) • Needed some work to build (done partly outside the Apache build framework) • Not RFC2616 compliant (HTTP/1.1) • Redirects failed • Expected different SAML content
Specifics • The STS SAML not 100% matching WSFED1.2 SAML • But this was relatively easy to fix • SAML fairly stretchy • Debugging redirects took time • Server said “error occurred” but not what – probably a security feature
Lessons Learned – no surprise • Need both Java and C (or C++) implementations • Interoperating, mature, maintained • Test suite needs publishing • As part of OS code
Debugging • Only possible with source code • Documented (and non-obfuscated) • Compilable • Work orthogonal to hosting environment
Debugging • Inspecting over SSL sockets nearly impossible • Which is a feature • Debug at client or server • Browser plugins – egTamperData for Moz
Whither then? • Made good progress, could pick up again • Contribute back upstream? • Other OS SPs available (untested) • GENESIS II, but in Java • Needs interest in community to thrive