configuration Archive

Configuring SimpleSAMLphp for SAFIRE

SimpleSAMLphp has good documentation, and so this is not a complete/worked example of how to configure it. Instead this provides the SAFIRE-specific snippets you may need when working through that documentation. Configuring metarefresh to fetch SAFIRE metadata You should use the metarefresh and cron modules to manage SAFIRE’s metadata automatically. SimpleSAMLphp provides documentation on automated metadata management which explains the basics of how you set this up. This document assumes you have a working cron module and have installed and enabled metarefresh.

Performing a SAML certificate or key roll-over

This is a recipe for rolling over (changing) your SAML signing certificate and the associated private key without a service affecting outage. NB! You should be aware that this process is NOT instantaneous, and requires proper planning to ensure your users can continue using your provider without incident. Therefore, you need to begin the process well before the expiry of your existing SAML signing certificate (plan for at least a week).

Configuring ADFS for SAFIRE

Note: While it is possible to use ADFS with SAFIRE, it has known interoperatability problems with the sort of multi-party federation used in the R&E world. SAFIRE’s architecture shields you from some of these effects, but you do sacrifice some flexibility and control. In order to configure Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) as an identity provider for SAFIRE, you need to do four things: Create a Relying Party Trust that fetches the federation hub’s metadata from https://metadata.

Configuring Azure AD SAML-based SSO for SAFIRE

The recommended way to integrate Azure AD into SAFIRE is via a SAML Proxy such as Shibboleth. While it is possible to connect Azure AD directly into SAFIRE, this has several caveats and cannot be guaranteed as a long-term solution. This documentation assumes that you already have an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant correctly configured and provisioned with your institution’s user accounts. To configure Azure AD as an identity provider for SAFIRE, you need to configure SAML-based SSO.

Configuring Google Workspace (G Suite) as an IdP for SAFIRE

As a result of the baseline changes that occured in march 2021, it is no longer possible to directly integrate Google Workspace (G Suite) with SAFIRE without making schema changes. In particular, you would need to add support for the displayName and eduPersonScopedAffiliation attributes. As no current providers use Google Workspace, his document has not been updated to incorporate information on how to do that, nor has it been tested. It remains theoretically possible to integrate Google Workspace.

Configuring Shibboleth Service Provider for SAFIRE

The Shibboleth Service Provider has good documentation, and so this is not a complete/worked example of how to configure it. Instead, this provides the SAFIRE-specific snippets you may need when working through that documentation. Installing Shibboleth Service Provider Note that some package repositories ship out-of-date and vulnerable versions of the Shibboleth SP. However, the Swiss federation operator (SWITCHaai) maintains up-to-date packages for Debian and Ubuntu. Choose an entityID Perhaps the single most important thing you can do is choose an entityID, which you’ll find in the stanza in shibboleth2.

Generating certificates for SAFIRE

Types of certificates SAML installations typically use at least two1 different certificates: one of the public facing portions of a website, and one to establish a private trust relationship between providers. Whilst it is possible to use the same certificate for these two roles, this is not best practice nor is it recommended. The technical requirements for identity- and service-providers definitively specify the requirements and recommendations for these two types of certificates.

Theme generator for SimpleSAMLphp

This theme generator was developed for SimpleSAMLphp 1.18.x and is no longer maintained. This should still work with SimpleSAMLphp 1.19.x, but may need a few tweeks. This will not work for SimpleSAMLphp 2.0.x as the theming mechanism changes completely. A number of people seem to find SimpleSAMLphp’s theming system intimidating. To aid with this, we’ve written a simple theme generator for SimpleSAMLphp. The generator takes SSP’s stock templates and massages them to include some branding – amongst other things, a logo on the top right of the page and corporate colours in the header bar.

Configuring Shibboleth Identity Provider for SAFIRE

These instructions are based on the Shibboleth documentation and have not been extensively tested. If you use Shibboleth IdPv4, please feel free to submit revisions if necessary. The Shibboleth Identity Provider has good documentation, and so this is not a complete/worked example of how to configure it. Instead this provides the SAFIRE-specific snippets you may need when working through that documentation. Configuring a metadata provider to fetch SAFIRE metadata The Shibboleth Identity Provider provides a FileBackedHTTPMetadataProvider that allows you to periodically fetch metadata.

South African Identity Federation