An Overview of the Configuration Files

Steps required to integrate SAML SP to a web application are described in this chapter. An overview of the SAML SP configuration files created or modified during the process is shown in Listing 1 . The location of the web application is denoted with <webapp_directory> and should be replaced with the actual directory.

The steps are:

1. The application’s deployment descriptor web.xml is modified to include the SAML SP servlet and filter configuration.
2. The provided binary libraries are copied to the WEB-INF\lib directory.
3. The provided logger configuration logback.xml is copied to WEB-INF\classes directory.
4. SAML SP identity information is created to the WEB-INF\saml2\sp directory and the IDP metadata is copied to the WEB-INF\saml2\sp\metadata directory.

<webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\web.xml                          [servlet and filter configuration] 
<webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\lib\*.jar                        [SAML SP binary libraries]
<webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\classes\logback.xml              [SAML SP logger configuration for Logback]
<webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\saml2\sp\identity.properties     [SAML SP identity]
<webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\saml2\sp\metadata\metadata.xml   [IDP metadata]

Copying the Binary Libraries

Copy the binary libraries from ubispservlet/webapp/WEB-INF/lib to the WEB-INF/lib directory of the web application.

cd ubispservlet\webapp\WEB-INF
copy lib\*.jar <webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\lib\.

SAML SP application logging

The SAML SP package uses SLF4J API and distributed with Logback logger implementation and a configuration file for it.

If the web application uses different logger implementation than Logback then do not copy logback*.jar files to the <webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\lib or remove them from there if they were copied. In this case to enable SAML SP logging it may require to add the additional dependencies for SLF4J depending on the logger implementation.

If the web application uses Logback as well consider also to copy the provided configuration:

cd ubispservlet\webapp\WEB-INF
copy classes\logback.xml <webapp_directory>\WEB-INF\classes\

Create the SAML Service Provider identity

The SAML Service Provider identity consists of an Entity ID, an RSA private key and an HTTP endpoint address. The Entity ID and private key are used to identify and authenticate the Service Provider to the Ubisecure Identity Provider, typically Ubisecure Server. The HTTP endpoint is used by the Ubisecure IDP to submit protocol messages to the Service Provider.

The HTTP endpoint is the fully qualified URL address where ServiceProviderServlet is bound. The path of ServiceProviderServlet is /spsso.
The identity is generated into a file named identity.properties. This file is located in the /WEB-INF/saml2/sp/identity.properties path of the web application.

<path_to_ubispservlet> is the path were the SAML SP servlet package was extracted to.

cd <webapp_directory>\WEB-INF
mkdir saml2\sp
java -jar <path_to_ubispservlet>\tools\metadata-generator.jar Generate https://sp.example.com/webapp/spsso -o saml2\sp

The sample command in Listing 3 assumes the application server is accessible using the hostname sp.example.com and the name of the web application is webapp. All communication with the application is encrypted using HTTPS.

Associate the SP Identity with a Ubisecure Web Agent

Use the Ubisecure Management application to associate the Service Provider identity with a Ubisecure Web Agent. You need to upload the SAML metadata of the Service Provider to the management application.

SAML metadata is an XML formatted document. The metadata represents the public information about the Service Provider identity.

cd <webapp_directory>\WEB-INF
java -jar <path_to_ubispservlet>\tools\metadata-generator.jar Metadata saml2\sp -f c:\temp\sp.xml

Use the commands in Listing 4 to write the SAML metadata of the Service Provider to a file. Use your web browser to associate the SP Identity with a Ubisecure Web Agent by uploading this metadata file in the Ubisecure Management application.

Using the Ubisecure Management Application

Get the Metadata of the Identity Provider

Download the Ubisecure IDP metadata from the SAML 2.0 link on the Ubisecure Management home page. Save this file into the /WEB-INF/saml2/sp/metadata folder of your web application.

During startup the Service Provider will locate and read all files in the /WEB-INF/saml2/sp/metadata folder. This folder must contain a single metadata file for a SAML Identity Provider. (It may however contain another metadata file for an Attribute Authority. See Attribute authority metadata below for more details.) The Service Provider startup will fail if an IDP metadata file is not found, or if the folder contains more than one IDP metadata file.

Attribute Authority Metadata

An Attribute Authority enables the real-time access of attributes via the backchannel. This functionality is rarely required.

If your application uses an attribute authority (AA) for attribute queries, you should copy the AA metadata to /WEB-INF/saml2/sp/metadata folder together with the IDP metadata file. The filenames must match, for example metadata.xml and metadata.href.

Key rotation

In order to use Key Rotation feature and update IDP/AA metadata automatically a ".href" file must exist. Don't be confused with the file extension since it is just a normal properties file in "key=value" format.

The file must be located at the same directory as the IDP/AA metadata file:

/WEB-INF/saml2/sp/metadata

The following properties are supported in ".href" file:

The example:

entityId=https://localhost:8443/uas
type=IDP
url=https://localhost:8443/uas/saml2/metadata.xml
refreshInterval=20