At work we have a web app that we'll need to interface with another company's web app using Single Sign On validated by SAML. Our web apps are written in PHP, and it's obviously irrelevant what language choice the other company is using. Nonetheless, I've needed to write a simple API that this other company can send SOAP requests to with SAML requests, and generate back a SAML response. I've been writing it from scratch for three reasons: 1) there don't really seem to be many options for SAML interactions written in PHP even if I wanted one, 2) it limits the overhead that would be involved with adding another third-party component, and 3) creating things from scratch usually leaves me with a significantly better understanding and makes me much more capable to adapt the thing in the future if needed.
Anyways, I'm fairly new to SAML, SOAP, and XML standards in general, so I've kind of been teaching myself as I go. I've got the API pretty much complete for our purposes, with the one exception that the other company has specified that our response will be required to be digitally signed with a certificate (and the request we receive will similarly be digitally signed). So I've been trying to figure out how to process/generate the XML signatures, but honestly it's all a bit confusing as W3C specs aren't exactly light reading.
Section 5.4.8 of the Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Markup Language (SAML) V1.1 document (the document I've been going off, as the other company said they'll be using v1.1) includes an example of a signed response containing a signed assertion, which I'm going to include here to reference:
<Response IssueInstant="2003-04-17T00:46:02Z" MajorVersion="1" MinorVersion="1"
Recipient="www.opensaml.org" ResponseID="_c7055387-af61-4fce-8b98-e2927324b306"
xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:protocol"
xmlns:samlp="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:protocol"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<ds:Signature xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
<ds:SignedInfo>
<ds:CanonicalizationMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/>
<ds:SignatureMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#rsa-sha1"/>
<ds:Reference URI="#_c7055387-af61-4fce-8b98-e2927324b306">
<ds:Transforms>
<ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#enveloped-signature"/>
<ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#">
<InclusiveNamespaces PrefixList="#default saml samlp ds xsd xsi"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/>
</ds:Transform>
</ds:Transforms>
<ds:DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
<ds:DigestValue>TCDVSuG6grhyHbzhQFWFzGrxIPE=</ds:DigestValue>
</ds:Reference>
</ds:SignedInfo>
<ds:SignatureValue>x/GyPbzmFEe85pGD3c1aXG4Vspb9V9jGCjwcRCKrtwPS6vdVNCcY5rHaFPYWkf+5EIYcPzx+pX1h43SmwviCqXRjRtMANWbHLhWAptaK1ywS7gFgsD01qjyen3CP+m3Dw6vKhaq1ed10BYyrIzb4KkHO4ahNyBVXbJwqv5pUaE4=</ds:SignatureValue>
<ds:KeyInfo>
<ds:X509Data>
<ds:X509Certificate>MIICyjCCAjOgAwIBAgICAnUwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEEBQAwgakxCzAJBgNVBAYTA1VT ... 8I3bsbmRAUg4UP9hH6ABVq4KQKMknxu1xQxLhpR1y1GPdiowMNTrEG8cCx3w/w==</ds:X509Certificate>
</ds:X509Data>
</ds:KeyInfo>
</ds:Signature>
<Status><StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/></Status>
<Assertion AssertionID="_a75adf55-01d7-40cc-929f-dbd8372ebdfc"
IssueInstant="2003-04-17T00:46:02Z" Issuer="www.opensaml.org"
MajorVersion="1" MinorVersion="1" xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:assertion"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Conditions NotBefore="2003-04-17T00:46:02Z" NotOnOrAfter="2003-04-17T00:51:02Z">
<AudienceRestrictionCondition>
<Audience>http://www.opensaml.org</Audience>
</AudienceRestrictionCondition>
</Conditions>
<AuthenticationStatement AuthenticationInstant="2003-04-17T00:46:00Z"
AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password">
<Subject>
<NameIdentifier Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress">scott@example.org</NameIdentifier>
<SubjectConfirmation>
<ConfirmationMethod>urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer</ConfirmationMethod>
</SubjectConfirmation>
</Subject>
<SubjectLocality IPAddress="127.0.0.1"/>
</AuthenticationStatement>
<ds:Signature xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
<ds:SignedInfo>
<ds:CanonicalizationMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/>
<ds:SignatureMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#rsa-sha1"/>
<ds:Reference URI="#_a75adf55-01d7-40cc-929f-dbd8372ebdfc">
<ds:Transforms>
<ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#enveloped-signature"/>
<ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#">
<InclusiveNamespaces PrefixList="#default saml samlp ds xsd xsi"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/>
</ds:Transform>
</ds:Transforms>
<ds:DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
<ds:DigestValue>Kclet6XcaOgOWXM4gty6/UNdviI=</ds:DigestValue>
</ds:Reference>
</ds:SignedInfo>
<ds:SignatureValue>hq4zk+ZknjggCQgZm7ea8fI79gJEsRy3E8LHDpYXWQIgZpkJN9CMLG8ENR4Nrw+n7iyzixBvKXX8P53BTCT4VghPBWhFTSt9tHWu/AtJfOTh6qaAsNdeCyG86jmtp3TDMWuL/cBUj2OtBZOQMFn7jQ9YB7k1Iz3RqVL+wNmeWI4=</ds:SignatureValue>
<ds:KeyInfo>
<ds:X509Data>
<ds:X509Certificate>MIICyjCCAjOgAwIBAgICAnUwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEEBQAwgakxCzAJBgNVBAYTA1VT ... 8I3bsbmRAUg4UP9hH6ABVq4KQKMknxu1xQxLhpR1y1GPdiowMNTrEG8cCx3w/w==</ds:X509Certificate>
</ds:X509Data>
</ds:KeyInfo>
</ds:Signature>
</Assertion>
</Response>
So how do I generate something like this? And if I receive something like this, how do I validate it? Also, can anyone offer just a basic conceptual overview of what the <ds:Signature>
tags are here? It seems there are two <ds:Signature>
tags, one in the main <Response>
and one in the <Assertion>
, each containing their own <ds:DigestValue>
, <ds:SignatureValue>
, and <ds:X509Certificate>
(and each distinct). How are these generated? Any light you can shed on this will be much appreciated. Tutorials or code examples would be even more appreciated! But at this point, if you can just get me on the right track, that's all I'm really asking for. Right now it all still seems like a big black box to me.
By the way, if this helps, it says elsewhere in the SAML 1.1 spec that SAML implementations should use the "Exclusive Canonicalization" method only (Excl-C14N) and should use the "enveloped transform" only. I'm still not completely sure what that means.