Shibboleth Access Management System Overview

1. Shibboleth Access Management System Walter Hoehn & David Millman, Columbia University

2. Introduction • Why the web needs identity? • Access Control • Customization • Collaboration • Challenges • Privacy concerns/obligations • Hundreds of passwords vs. Passport • Protocol limitations

3. Shibboleth Overview • Federated Identity Management • Flexible attribute profiles • Privacy controls • Works with existing browser technology • Standards-based

4. Shibboleth Overview (cont.) • Origins (Identity Providers) • Manages user identity data • Authenticates users • Administers attribute release policies • Provides user attributes • Targets (Resource Providers) • Administers access control policies • Administers attribute acceptance policies • Requests attributes • Provides digital resources/services

6. Demo NSDL.org

7. Who is working on Shibboleth? • Internet2 (UCAID) • Columbia University • Brown University • The Ohio State University • The University of Washington • MIT

8. Who is using Shibboleth? • 17 Identity Providers (15 US Universities, 1UK University, Swiss Education and Research Network) • 4 Content vendors (JSTOR, OCLC, EBSCO, ProQuest) • 2 course management systems (Blackboard, WebCT) • 1 online grading system (WebAssign) • 1 inter-library loan vendor (Innovative Interfaces)

9. Advances since the last All-Projects meeting • Security • PKI-based signature verification • SAML 1.1 support • Performance • Improved caching mechanisms • Target can request specific attributes • Privacy • Attribute Release Policy language and engine

10. Advances since the last All-Projects meeting (cont.) • Integration • Attribute Resolution Engine (runtime configuration, metadirectory functionality) • Support for international characters in assertions • Stateless handle mechanism, which allows for fault-tolerant configurations • Support for using SSL Client Auth to authN to the origin • Expanded Platform Support • Origin – All JDK 1.4 compatible platforms • Target - Linux, Solaris, Windows / apache, IIS

11. Use Case: Accessibility • A government agency creates a web site containing video footage of historically important NASA space flights • The web site’s interface must be adaptable for users with disabilities • A user with low vision prefers custom colors, font face, and font size. • A user with hand tremors might prefer bigger links and buttons.

12. Use Case: Accessibility (cont.) • Appropriate content can be selected or search priorities can be pre-set for accessible resources • A user who is deaf may want only videos with closed captioning • A user who is blind may want images with text descriptions and videos with audio descriptions to be ranked highly in search results

13. Use Case: Accessibility (cont.) • A Solution • Agency installs a Shibboleth-enabled web service • The user’s identity provider transmits accessibility metadata to the web site (IMS Learner Information Profile) via Shibboleth • Web site assigns style sheets based on accessibility metadata • Web site search service uses accessibility metadata in ranking algorithms Contact: Madeleine_Rothberg@wgbh.org

14. Use Case: Subscription-based content • An online aggregator of scholarly medical publications sells subscriptions to a university library • Eligible users should be able to access the content regardless of location • The aggregator wants the flexibility to offer license agreements to subsets of a University community • The library wants to maintain the privacy of its patrons and the security of their personal data

15. Use Case: Subscription-based content (cont.) • A Solution • Aggregator installs a Shibboleth-enabled web service • The University’s IT department deploys a shibboleth origin in conjunction with their central directory service • The University transmits eduPerson entitlement attribute data via Shibboleth

16. Use Case: Web site contains curriculum aids for middle school science • The site includes curriculum aids; such as photographs, videos, maps, report topics, etc. that are available freely available for students to download • The site also includes lesson plans, discussion questions, and tests that accompany the freely available materials. These materials should only be available to educators.

17. Use Case: Web site contains curriculum aids for middle school science (cont.) • A Solution • Site installs a Shibboleth-enabled web service • The user’s identity provider transmits information related to teacher credentialing • Requirements are different • Not a user settable preference (as in accessibility use case) • Not provided by existing university infrastructure (as in subscription use case)

18. Target Installation • Prerequisites • SSL-enabled web server • Supported platform • Relationship with an identity provider or federation • Install pluggable Shibboleth module • Configure site metadata • Configure attribute acceptance policies • Configure access control rules

19. Target Installation (cont.) • Current required skill set • Service platform competency (OS, web server, application environment) • SSL • XML • X509/PKI • Shibboleth federation model • Closing the gap • Identify appropriate staff • Better software packaging/streamlined installation

20. Research/Directions for the future • Access Management for N-tier applications • Attribute Release Policies • Interfaces • Resource Description Metadata • Authorization services (XACML) • Integration with other SAML-based identity services (Liberty)