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Options for integrating the JANET Roaming Service (JRS) and Shibboleth. Tim Chown tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk University of Southampton (UK) JISC Access Management Showcase Event London, 18th July 2006. JRS and Shibboleth. We have two ‘access control’ worlds
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Options for integrating the JANET Roaming Service (JRS) and Shibboleth Tim Chown tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk University of Southampton (UK) JISC Access Management Showcase Event London, 18th July 2006
JRS and Shibboleth • We have two ‘access control’ worlds • JRS for network access, as described in the previous talk • Shibboleth for (currently) web-based applications • JRS is being widely adopted • With support at a European/world scale via eduroam • What more value can we get from it? • UK Shibboleth early adopters making progress • Can Shibboleth be used for WLAN access control? • Could the JRS be used as a back-end for Shibboleth?
JRS features • Easy to deploy • Most sites use RADIUS already • Uses generally long-established open standards • Easy to join • Establish one RADIUS peering with national proxy • No local access control micro-management required • All-In • All sites implicitly trust all other sites • No attributes • Purely an authentication scheme • Though RADIUS can carry attributes
Question 1 • Can we use Shibboleth for network layer access control for roaming users? • User powers up in WLAN hotspot • Local network gateway blocks all external access until user authenticates using Shibboleth • To authenticate using Shibboleth user needs web access to the WAYF service and their home authentication service • Implies local network gateway must be pre-configured with at least one allowed web destination per Shibboleth-enabled site that visitors may come from • That doesn’t scale!
Question 2 • Can we use the JRS as a Shibboleth back end? • May be able to leverage JRS to boost Shibboleth adoption - many JRS sites have no Shibboleth deployment • Idea: introduce a Virtual identity provider (VIdP) • Functionally equivalent to a normal IdP • The VIdP uses the JRS as an authentication back-end • Any JRS-enabled site can use the VIdP in place of hosting its own IdP function • The VIdP can proxy on behalf of any number of sites • RADIUS-Aware Gateway to Shibboleth (RAGS)
Building the VIdP… • Designed to have no changes to WAYF or SP code • The IdP is modified to become the VIdP • Tools already exist, e.g.: • Apache mod_auth_radius • JRadius Java connector, with support for (T)TLS for secure connection from VIdP to home site • The JRS site needs to opt-in • Its entry in the WAYF service points to the VIdP • Can customise login appearance based on passed URL • Some policy issues/decisions • e.g. its *possible* to add eduroam sites to UK WAYF
Closing observations • Shibboleth and JRS both being adopted • Initial adopter sites don’t overlap that much • Shibboleth is unsuitable for WLAN admission • JRS *could* be offered as a Shibboleth back end • The VIdP is currently being developed • What about attributes? • What classes of attributes will be required? • Can use JRadius to query RADIUS-based attributes • More policy questions • Would using the JRS be acceptable to the UK federation? • Who would manage the VIdP?