Introduction

SSO is about a user having to sign in only once when interacting with a custom web application which may offer of a number of individual endpoints.

CXF 2.6.1 introduces a comprehensive service provider (SP) support for the SAML Web SSO profile. This page also offers a good overview of the profile.

HTTP Redirect(via GET) and POST bindings are supported. The module has been tested against many IDP providers and is easily configurable.

The following components are required to get SSO supported:

• Identity Provider (IDP) supporting SAML SSO
• Request Assertion Consumer Service (RACS)
• Application Security Filter
• SSO State Provider

The following sections will describe these components in more details

Typical Flow

Typically, the following flow represents the way SAML SSO is enforced:

1. User accesses a custom application for the first time
2. Application Security Filter checks if the security context is available
and redirects the user to IDP with a SAML SSO request
3. IDP challenges the user with the authentication dialog and redirects the user to
Request Assertion Consumer Service (RACS) after the user has authenticated
4. RACS validates the response from IDP, establishes a security context and redirects the user
to the original application endpoint
5. Application Security Filter enforces that a valid security context is available and lets the user
access the custom application.

Maven dependencies

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
  <artifactId>cxf-rt-rs-security-sso-saml</artifactId>
  <version>2.6.1</version>
</dependency>

Identity Provider

Request Assertion Security Service

Application Security Filter

SSO State Provider