Technical

To ensure broad compatibility with commonly used SAML identity providers, SAFIRE’s federation hub can adjust its behaviour to handle specific quirks in some implementations. This is mainly intended for proprietary SAML software stacks that do not fully support our deployment profiles. It is not a substitute for correcting misconfigurations. Quirks are signalled in identity provider metadata by setting the x-safire.ac.za:quirks EntityAttribute as follows: <mdattr:EntityAttributes> <saml:Attribute FriendlyName="quirks" Name="urn:x-safire.ac.za:quirks" NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri"> <saml:AttributeValue>quirk1</saml:AttributeValue> <saml:AttributeValue>quirk2</saml:AttributeValue> </saml:Attribute> </mdattr:EntityAttributes> Note that is is only supported for identity providers that are directly registered in SAFIRE.

This documentation will guide you through the Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) configuration process as an authentication source in SimpleSAMLphp. By integrating Entra ID in this way, you can retain your users’ familiar login experience while leveraging SimpleSAMLphp’s flexibility to fetch and/or manipulate attributes from Entra ID and other sources. While SAFIRE can directly work with Entra ID or SimpleSAMLphp (as explained in our Configuring Entra ID SAML-based SSO for SAFIRE and Configuring SimpleSAMLphp for SAFIRE documentation), you may find yourself in a situation where this approach better fits your use case.

Microsoft does not recommend deploying new instances of AD FS. Instead, they encourage you to consider Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). This raises a common question: can you migrate an existing SAFIRE identity provider from AD FS to Entra ID? Unfortunately, the answer is not straightforward. This document outlines the main challenges, along with some approaches you might consider. No direct migration path In Entra ID, SAML identity providers are configured as “Enterprise Applications”.

While it is possible to connect Microsoft Entra ID directly into SAFIRE, this has several caveats you need to be aware of. To help you make an informed decision, the info boxes in this document highlight some of the things you need to consider. Read through it carefully before starting your implementation. Microsoft recommends integrating Entra ID into SAFIRE via a SAML Proxy such as Shibboleth, which mirror’s the R&E federation communty’s guidence.

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.

There is considerable interest in leveraging SAFIRE and eduGAIN to integrate with the various library information providers, such as academic content, journal, and database publishers. Information providers variously term this “Shibboleth”, “SAML” or “Institutional” logins, and in most cases are already integrated with other federations around the world. The following documents the integration status of various providers in SAFIRE. Association for Computing Machinery Status Working Login link terminology Institutional Login Notes Libraries can follow the documentation link, or contact ACM support and request Shibboleth access (see documentation).

This theme generator has been updated for SimpleSAMLphp 2.0.x 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 left of the page and corporate colours in the header bar. The generator is a bash script, and is available here.