Attribute: mail

Subject’s email address.

Note that use of the mail attribute as a person identifier is strongly discouraged. Service providers looking for a person identifer should consider eduPersonTargetedId or eduPersonPrincipalName.

Attribute Definition

Friendly Name mail
OID urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.3
Description

Subject’s email address.

Note that use of the mail attribute as a person identifier is strongly discouraged. Service providers looking for a person identifer should consider eduPersonTargetedId or eduPersonPrincipalName.

Format Multi-valued. Well formed email address.
References
Example ben@example.ac.za
Additional Notes

Using mail as a person identifer can have serious information security implications. The mail attribute:-

  • is multi-valued (a user may have more than one email address);
  • not guarenteed to be unique (multiple users can share the same email address);
  • not persistant (a person’s email address may change without warning);
  • may be reassigned (a new person may get the same email address as someone who has left);
  • is not validated against the <shibmd:Scope> elements, and may have a right-hand side that is not in-baliwick (i.e. it may contain a user’s personal example@gmail.com address rather than an institutional address).

South African Identity Federation