SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) -- Simplified

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As discussed earlier SAML provides the web SSO as in the earlier blog on SSO.

By Definition SAML is-

Security Assertion Markup Language is an XML-based open standard data format for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties, in particular, between an identity provider and a service provider.

Breaking it down.

IdP is the Identity Provider -- someone who has a database containing usernames and passwords. For eg. Google apps.

SP is service provider -- a service we would like to use. For eg. apps like soundcloud and etc which allow us to log into their service using the credentials stored in IdP.

So basically, if you want to add a comment to this blog post, you would have to authenticate with Google apps over the Browser and one Google identifies you as the right user, will allow you to access this resource and leave a comment. This is quite simply SAML at work.

The below video is amazing and a must watch to just understand it further.


For something more detailed see below


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