4.6 Federation Explained
Key Concepts
Federation in the context of IT security involves the sharing of identity and access management (IAM) services across multiple organizations or systems. Key concepts include Identity Providers (IdPs), Service Providers (SPs), and Federation Protocols.
Identity Providers (IdPs)
Identity Providers are entities that create, maintain, and manage identity information for principals and provide principal authentication to other service providers within a federation. They issue security tokens that contain information about a principal.
Example: A university acts as an IdP for its students. When a student needs to access an online library service, the university verifies the student's identity and issues a security token that the library service can trust.
Service Providers (SPs)
Service Providers are entities that provide services to principals and rely on the IdP to authenticate those principals. They consume the security tokens issued by IdPs to grant access to their services.
Example: An online library service acts as an SP. When a student from the university tries to access the library's resources, the library service checks the security token issued by the university's IdP to verify the student's identity and grant access.
Federation Protocols
Federation Protocols are standardized methods for exchanging authentication and authorization data between IdPs and SPs. Common protocols include SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) and OAuth.
Example: SAML is a popular federation protocol used by many organizations. When a user logs into a service using SAML, the IdP sends a SAML assertion to the SP, which contains information about the user's identity and permissions. The SP then uses this information to grant access to the user.
Conclusion
Federation simplifies the authentication process for users and reduces the administrative burden on organizations by allowing them to share identity and access management services. By understanding Identity Providers (IdPs), Service Providers (SPs), and Federation Protocols, organizations can implement secure and efficient access management solutions.