deb-python-pysaml2/doc/howto/config.rst

Configuration of pySAML2 entities

Whether you plan to run a pySAML2 Service Provider, Identity provider or an attribute authority you have to configure it. The format of the configuration file is the same disregarding which type of service you plan to run. What differs is the directives. Below you will find a list of all the used directives in alphabetic order. The configuration is written as a python dictionary which means that the directives are the top level keys.

Note

You can build metadata files directly from the configuration. The make_metadata.py script in the pySAML2 tools directory will do it for you.

Configuration directives

attribute_maps

Format:

attribute_maps: ["attribute.map"]

Points to simple key/value files that, most commonly, contains the unique name of attributes and their friendly names separated by a blank, one attribute per line:

urn:oid:2.5.4.4, surName
urn:oid:2.5.4.42 givenName
urn:oid:2.5.4.12 title
urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1 uid
urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.3 mail
urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.5923.1.1.1.1 eduPersonAffiliation
urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.5923.1.1.1.7 eduPersonEntitlement

To be used by a SP or an IdP when translating back and forth between user friendly names and universally unique names.

cert_file

Format:

cert_file: ["cert.pem"]

A file that contains CA certificates that the service will use in HTTPS sessions to verify the server certificate. cert_file must be a PEM formatted certificate chain file.

debug

Format:

debug: 1

Whether debug information should be sent to the log file.

entityid

Format:

entityid: "http://saml.example.com/sp"

The globally unique identifier of the entity.

key_file

Format:

key_file: ["key.pem"]

key_file is the name of a PEM formatted file that contains the private key of the service. This is presently used both to encrypt assertions and as client key in a HTTPS session.

metadata

Contains a list of places where metadata can be found. This can be either a file accessible on the server the service runs on or somewhere on the net.:

"metadata" : {
    "local": [
        "metadata.xml", "vo_metadata.xml"
        ],
    "remote": [
        "https://kalmar2.org/aggregator/?id=kalmarcentral&set=saml2"
        ],
},

service

Which services the server will provide, those are combinations of "idp","sp" and "aa". So if one server is supposed to be both Service Provider (SP) and Attribute Authority (AA) then the configuration could look something like this:

"service": {
    "aa":{
        "name" : "VO AA",
        "url": "http://localhost:8090/soap",
    },
    "sp":{
        "name" : "VO SP",
        "url" : "http://localhost:8090/sp",
    }
},

There are two options common to all services: 'name' and 'url'. With the obvious meanings. There also exits special option for SPs namely: 'idp', 'optional_attributes' and 'required_attributes'. Both IdPs and AAs can have the option 'assertions'

assertions (idp/aa)

If the server is an IdP and/or an AA then there might be reasons to do things differently depending on who is asking; this is where that is specified. The keys are 'default' and SP entity identifiers, default is used whenever there is no entry for a specific SP. The reasoning is also that if there is no default and only SP entity identifiers as keys, then the server will only except connections from the specified SPs. An example might be:

"assertions": {
    "default": {
        "lifetime": {"minutes":15},
        "attribute_restrictions": None # means all I have
    },
    "urn:mace:umu.se:saml:roland:sp": {
        "lifetime": {"minutes": 5},
        "attribute_restrictions":{
             "givenName": None,
             "surName": None,
        }
    }
}

lifetime is the maximum amount of time before the information should be regarded as stale. In an Assertion this is represented in the NotOnOrAfter attribute. By default there is no restrictions as to which attributes should be return. Instead all the attributes and values that is gathered by the database backends will be returned if nothing else is stated. In the example above the SP with the entity identifier "urn:mace:umu.se:saml:roland:sp" has an attribute restriction: only the attributes 'givenName' and 'surName' are to be returned. There is no limitations as to what values on these attributes that can be returned.

If restrictions on values are deemed necessary those are represented by regular expressions.:

"assertions": {
    "urn:mace:umu.se:saml:roland:sp": {
        "lifetime": {"minutes": 5},
        "attribute_restrictions":{
             "mail": [".*.umu.se$"],
        }
    }
}

Here only mail addresses that ends with ".umu.se" will be returned.

idp (sp)

Defines the set of IdPs that this SP can use. If there is metadata loaded then the value is expected to be a dictionary with entity identifiers as keys and possibly the IdP url as values. If the url is not defined then an attempt is made to pick it out of the metadata. A typical configuration, when metadata is present, would look something like this:

"idp": {
    "urn:mace:umu.se:saml:roland:idp": None,
},

In this case the SP has only one IdP it can use, a typical situation when you are using SAML for services within one organization. At configuration time the url of the IdP might not be know so the evaluation of it is left until a metadata file is present. If more than one IdP can be used then the WAYF function (NOT IMPLEMENTED YET) would use the metadata file to find out the names, to be presented to the user, for the different IdPs. On the other hand if the SP only uses one specific IdP then the usage of metadata might be overkill so this construct can be used instead:

"idp": {
    "" : "https://example.com/saml2/idp/SSOService.php",
},

Since the user is immediately sent to the IdP the entity identifier of the IdP is immaterial. In this case the key is expected to be the user friendly name of the IdP. Which again if no WAYF is used is immaterial.

There is a third choice and that is to leave the configuration blank, in which case all the IdP present in the metadata will be regarded as eligible services to use. :

"idp": {
},

optional_attributes (sp)

Attributes that this SP would like to receive from IdPs.

Example:

"optional_attributes": ["title"],

required_attributes (sp)

Attributes that this SP demands to receive from IdPs.

Example:

"required_attributes": ["surName", "givenName", "mail"],

subject_data

The name of a shelve database where the map between a local identifier and a distributed identifier is kept.

Example:

"subject_data": "./idp.subject.db",

xmlsec_binary

Presently xmlsec1 binaries are use for all the signing and encryption stuff. This option defines where the binary is situated.

virtual_organization

Gives information about common identifiers for virtual_organizations:

"virtual_organization" : {
    "urn:mace:example.com:it:tek":{
        "nameid_format" : "urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15-NameID",
        "common_identifier": "umuselin",
    }
},

Keys are identifiers for virtual organizations, the arguments per organization is 'nameid_format' and 'common_identifier'. Useful if all the IdPs and AAs that are involved in a virtual organization has common attribute values for users that are part of the VO.

Example

We start with a simple Service provider configuration:

{
    "entityid" : "urn:mace:example.com:saml:roland:sp",
    "service": {
        "sp":{
            "name" : "Rolands SP",
            "url" : "http://www.example.com:8087/",
            "required_attributes": ["surName", "givenName", "mail"],
            "optional_attributes": ["title"],
            "idp": {
                "urn:mace:example.com:saml:roland:idp": None,
            },
        }
    },
    "key_file" : "./mykey.pem",
    "cert_file" : "./mycert.pem",
    "xmlsec_binary" : "/opt/local/bin/xmlsec1",
    "metadata" : { 
        "local": ["metadata.xml", "vo_metadata.xml"],
    },
    "attribute_maps": ["attribute.map"],
}