1 <!doctype HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
5 <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
6 <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
7 <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
8 <title>Shibboleth Target Deployment Guide</title>
9 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
10 <style type="text/css">
14 background-color: #FFFFFF;
32 border-width:2px; background-color: #DDDDDD;
33 background-image: url('none');
41 background-color: #DDDDDD;
42 background-image: url('none');
48 background-color: #DDDDDD;
49 background-image: url('none');
58 background-color: #DDDDDD;
59 border: 1px inset black;
60 background-image: url('none');
68 background-color: #EEEEEE;
69 background-image: url('none');
71 padding-bottom: 0.5em;
74 border-bottom-width: none;
75 border-top-width: none;
76 border-left-width: 1px;
77 border-right-width: 1px; border-left-style:solid; border-right-style:solid; border-top-style:solid; border-bottom-style:solid
84 background-color: #BCBCEE;
85 border: 1px inset black;
86 background-image: url('none');
94 background-color: #DDDDFF;
95 background-image: url('none');
97 padding-bottom: 0.5em;
100 border-bottom-width: none;
101 border-top-width: none;
102 border-left-width: 1px;
103 border-right-width: 1px; border-left-style:solid; border-right-style:solid; border-top-style:solid; border-bottom-style:solid
110 background-color: #DDDDDD;
111 border: 1px inset black;
112 background-image: url('none');
121 background-color: #BCBCEE;
122 border: 1px inset black;
123 background-image: url('none');
129 background-color: #EEEEEE;
134 font-family: monospace;
146 <body link="red" vlink="red" alink="black" bgcolor="white">
149 <h2>Shibboleth Target Deployment Guide</h2>
151 <p>Shibboleth Target Deployment Guide<br>
152 Shibboleth Version 1.0.1<br />
155 <h3>This version of the deploy guide is for Shibboleth v1.0.1. For documentation
156 related to prior versions of Shibboleth, please consult the appropriate branch
157 in the Shibboleth CVS.</h3>
158 <h3>Federations have been abstracted out from the Shibboleth documentation. For
159 further information on using Shibboleth in a federation, refer to the federation
161 <p>Shibboleth v1.0.1 is stable and secure enough to deploy in production
162 scenarios. It is backward compatible with 1.0 in all respects, including
163 configuration, but some older commands have been deprecated or replaced.</p>
164 <p>Features and changes specific to 1.0.1 are marked with <span class="feature">
166 <h4>Major New Features in 1.0 and 1.0.1</h4>
167 <p>This new release contains several improvements and enhancements, including:
169 <h5>Federation Support</h5>
171 <li>Federation and trust support has been substantially extended. Federation
172 structures are now defined. The set of metadata collected and managed by
173 each Federation is more fully defined. The configuration values assigned by
174 a Federation are now identified. </li>
175 <li>There is some support for targets to be members of multiple federations;
176 this support will continue to evolve. When a browser user arrives, a target
177 will determine which federation their origin belongs to, and then use the
178 trust fabric associated with that Federation.</li>
179 <li>Better support for flexible and bilateral trust agreements. A key
180 specific to an origin site can be used to vallidate its signature.</li>
181 <li>This version contains a significantly more mature security
182 implementation, and should meet the security requirements of typical sites.</li>
186 <li>The Attribute Authority has a powerful new attribute resolver. Simple
187 scenarios (using a string attribute stored in ldap) can be accomplished by
188 merely editing a configuration file. Java classes may still be written for
189 more complex evaluations (eg retrieving information from multiple disparate
190 repositories, and computing the SAML attribute using business rules). This
191 should greatly simplify the process of configuring the AA to support
192 additional general attributes.</li>
193 <li>Support for a runtime-derived per-requester persistent identifier
194 attribute to support anonymous personalization by targets has been added via
195 an attribute plugin. <span class="feature">[1.0.1]</span></li>
196 <li>Specialized sites without privacy needs can configure identity-based
197 handles interoperable with other SAML deployments. <span class="feature">
202 <li>Significantly more flexibility in configuring targets to ensure
203 robustness. Failover and redundant configurations are now supported.</li>
204 <li>The SHAR may now optionally store its session and attribute cache in a
205 back-end database in addition to the previously available in-memory option.
206 This would allow a site to run an apache server farm, with multiple SHARs,
207 supporting the same set of sessions.</li>
208 <li>Federation supplied files (sites.xml and trust.xml) are now refreshed in
209 a much more robust manner. </li>
211 <li>The SHAR can be configured to request specific attributes from the
213 <li>The SHAR can use TCP sockets when responding to the Apache module, for
214 specialized deployment behind firewalls. <span class="feature">[1.0.1]</span>
216 <li>Attribute acceptance policies have been greatly enhanced, and are now
217 used to configure all aspects of attribute handling by the target, except
218 for requesting specific attributes by sitename. Adding attributes now takes
219 place in one configuration step. <span class="feature">[1.0.1]</span> </li>
220 <li>Support for Apache 1.3 on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 has been added.
221 <span class="feature">[1.0.1]</span> </li>
222 <li>Microsoft IIS web server support has been added via an ISAPI filter and
223 extension. <span class="feature">[1.0.1]</span> </li>
225 <h5>Miscellaneous</h5>
227 <li>Origin sites can configure a value to describe the type of
228 authentication mechanism used at the origin site(e.g. password, Kerberos,
229 PKI, etc.). This value is made available on the target side as Shib-Authentication-Method.
232 <li>Various improvements to error handling. Origin sites are now able to
233 supply an "error URL" and contact information to a federation. When a target
234 encounters an error, it can include this information in the error page. <br>
236 <li>Local time string values are now used in log files. <br>
238 <li>Internationalization support has been extended.</li>
240 <p>Before starting, please sign up for all applicable
241 <a href="http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/shib-misc.html#mailinglist">mailing
242 lists</a>. Announcements pertinent to Shibboleth deployments and developments
243 and resources for deployment assistance can be found here.</p>
244 <p>Please send any questions, concerns, or eventual confusion to
245 <a href="mailto:mace-shib-users@internet2.edu">mace-shib-users@internet2.edu</a>.
246 This should include, but not be limited to, questions about the documentation,
247 undocumented problems, installation or operational issues, and anything else
248 that arises. Please ensure that you have the
249 <a href="http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/release/shib-download.html">appropriate
250 tarball</a> for your operating system.</p>
257 <h3><a name="TOC"></a>Shibboleth Target -- Table of Contents</h3>
260 <h4><a href="#1."><font color="black">Shibboleth Overview</font></a></h4>
262 <li><a href="#1.a."><font color="black">Origin</font></a></li>
263 <li><a href="#1.b."><font color="black">Target</font></a></li>
264 <li><a href="#1.c."><font color="black">WAYF</font></a></li>
265 <li><a href="#1.d."><font color="black">Federations</font></a></li>
269 <h4><a href="#2."><font color="black">Planning</font></a></h4>
271 <li><a href="#2.a."><font color="black">Requirements</font></a></li>
272 <li><a href="#2.b."><font color="black">Join a Federation</font></a></li>
273 <li><a href="#2.c."><font color="black">Security Considerations</font></a></li>
274 <li><a href="#2.d."><font color="black">Server Certificates</font></a></li>
275 <li><a href="#2.e."><font color="black">Attribute Release Policies</font></a></li>
276 <li><a href="#2.f."><font color="black">Designate Contacts</font></a></li>
277 <li><a href="#2.g."><font color="black">Browser Requirements</font></a></li>
278 <li><a href="#2.h."><font color="black">Clocks</font></a></li>
279 <li><a href="#2.i."><font color="black">Other Considerations</font></a></li>
283 <h4><a href="#3."><font color="black">Installation</font></a></h4>
285 <li><a href="#3.a."><font color="black">Software Requirements</font></a></li>
286 <li><a href="#3.b."><font color="black">Deploy the Shibboleth Package</font></a></li>
287 <li><a href="#3.c."><font color="black">Configuring Apache 1.3.x</font></a></li>
288 <li><a href="#3.d."><font color="black">Configuring IIS</font></a></li>
289 <li><a href="#3.e."><font color="black">Running the SHAR on Windows</font></a></li>
293 <h4><a href="#4."><font color="black">Getting Running</font></a></h4>
295 <li><a href="#4.a."><font color="black">Configuring <span class="fixed">
296 shibboleth.ini</span></font></a></li>
297 <li><a href="#4.b."><font color="black">Dynamic Error Page Generation</font></a></li>
298 <li><a href="#4.c."><font color="black">Key Generation and Certificate
299 Installation</font></a></li>
300 <li><a href="#4.d."><font color="black">Protecting Web Pages</font></a></li>
301 <li><a href="#4.e."><font color="black">Defining Attributes and
302 Acceptance Policies</font></a></li>
303 <li><a href="#4.f."><font color="black">Using Attributes in Applications</font></a></li>
304 <li><a href="#4.g."><font color="black"><span class="fixed">siterefresh</span></font></a></li>
305 <li><a href="#4.h."><font color="black">MySQL Session Cache</font></a></li>
309 <h4><a href="#5."><font color="black">Troubleshooting</font></a></h4>
311 <li><a href="#5.a."><font color="black">Basic Testing</font></a></li>
312 <li><a href="#5.b."><font color="black">Common Problems</font></a></li>
321 <h3><a name="1."></a>1. Shibboleth Overview</h3>
322 <p>Shibboleth is a system designed to exchange attributes across realms for the
323 primary purpose of authorization. It provides a secure framework for one
324 organization to transmit attributes about a web-browsing individual across
325 security domains to another institution. In the primary usage case, when a user
326 attempts to access a resource at a remote domain, the user's own home security
327 domain can send certain information about that user to the target site in a
328 trusted exchange. These attributes can then be used by the resource to help
329 determine whether to grant the user access to the resource. The user may have
330 the ability to decide whether to release specific attributes to certain sites by
331 specifying personal Attribute Release Policies (ARP's), effectively preserving
332 privacy while still granting access based on trusted information.</p>
333 <p>When a user first tries to access a resource protected by Shibboleth, they
334 are redirected to a service which asks the user to specify the organization from
335 which they want to authenticate. If the user has not yet locally authenticated
336 to a WebISO service, the user will then be redirected to their home
337 institution's authentication system. After the user authenticates, the
338 Shibboleth components at the local institution will generate a temporary
339 reference to the user, known as a handle, for the individual and send this to
340 the target site. The target site can then use the handle to ask for attributes
341 about this individual. Based on these attributes, the target can decide whether
342 or not to grant access to the resource. The user may then be allowed to access
343 the requested materials.</p>
344 <p>There are several controls on privacy in Shibboleth, and mechanisms are
345 provided to allow users to determine exactly which information about them is
346 released. A user's actual identity isn't necessary for many access control
347 decisions, so privacy often is needlessly compromised. Instead, the resource
348 often utilizes other attributes such as faculty member or member of a certain
349 class. While these are commonly determined using the identity of the user,
350 Shibboleth provides a way to mutually refer to the same principal without
351 revealing that principal's identity. Because the user is initially known to the
352 target site only by a randomly generated temporary handle, if sufficient, the
353 target site might know no more about the user than that the user is a member of
354 the origin organization. This handle should never be used to decide whether or
355 not to grant access, and is intended only as a temporary reference for
356 requesting attributes.</p>
357 <h4><a name="1.a."></a>1.a. Origin</h4>
359 <p>There are four primary components to the origin side in Shibboleth: the
360 Attribute Authority (AA), the Handle Service (HS), the directory service,
361 and the local sign-on system (SSO). The AA and HS are provided with
362 Shibboleth, and an open-source WebISO solution Pubcookie is also supplied;
363 the directory is provided by the origin site. Shibboleth is able to
364 interface with a directory exporting an LDAP interface or a SQL database
365 containing user attributes, and is designed such that programming interfaces
366 to other repositories should be readily implemented. Shibboleth relies on
367 standard web server mechanisms to trigger local authentication. A .htaccess
368 file can be easily used to trigger either the local WebISO system or the web
369 server's own Basic Auth mechanism, which will likely utilize an enterprise
370 authentication system, such as Kerberos.</p>
371 <p>From the origin site's point of view, the first contact will be the
372 redirection of a user to the handle service, which will then consult the SSO
373 system to determine whether the user has already been authenticated. If not,
374 then the browser user will be asked to authenticate, and then sent back to
375 the target URL with a handle bundled in an attribute assertion. Next, a
376 request from the Shibboleth Attribute Requester (SHAR) will arrive at the AA
377 which will include the previously mentioned handle. The AA then consults the
378 ARP's for the directory entry corresponding to the handle, queries the
379 directory for these attributes, and releases to the SHAR all attributes the
380 SHAR is entitled to know about that user.</p>
382 <h4><a name="1.b."></a>1.b. Target</h4>
384 <p>There are three primary components to the target side in Shibboleth: the
385 Shibboleth Indexical Reference Establisher (SHIRE), the Shibboleth Attribute
386 Requester (SHAR), and the resource manager (RM). An implementation of each
387 of these is included in the standard Shibboleth distribution. These
388 components are intended to run on the same web server.</p>
389 <p>From the target's point of view, a browser will hit the RM with a request
390 for a Shibboleth-protected resource. The RM then allows the SHIRE to step
391 in, which will use the WAYF to acquire the name of a handle service to ask
392 about the user. The handle service (HS) will then reply with a SAML
393 authentication assertion containing a handle, which the SHIRE then hands off
394 to the SHAR. The SHAR uses the handle and the supplied address of the
395 corresponding attribute authority (AA) to request all attributes it is
396 allowed to know about the handle. The SHAR performs some basic validation
397 and analysis based on attribute acceptance policies (AAP's). These
398 attributes are then handed off to the RM, which is responsible for using
399 these attributes to decide whether to grant access.</p>
401 <h4><a name="1.c."></a>1.c. Where are you from? (WAYF)</h4>
403 <p>The WAYF service can be either outsourced and operated by a federation or
404 deployed as part of the SHIRE. It is responsible for allowing a user to
405 associate themself with an institution of their specification, then
406 redirecting the user to the known address for the handle service of that
409 <h4><a name="1.d."></a>1.d. Federations</h4>
411 <p>A federation is one way to provide part of the underlying trust required
412 for function of the Shibboleth architecture. A federation in the context of
413 Shibboleth is a group of organizations(universities, corporations, content
414 providers, etc.) who agree to exchange attributes using the SAML/Shibboleth
415 protocols and abide by a common set of policies and practices. In so doing,
416 they must implicitly or explicitly agree to a common set of guidelines.
417 Joining a federation is not explicitly necessary for operation of
418 Shibboleth, but it dramatically expands the number of targets and origins
419 that can interact without defining bilateral agreements between all these
421 <p>A federation can be created in a variety of formats and trust models, but
422 to support Shibboleth, it must provide a certain set of services to
423 federation members. It needs to supply a registry to process applications to
424 the federation and distribute membership information to the origin and
425 target sites. This must include distribution of the PKI components necessary
426 for trust between origins and targets. There also needs to be a set of
427 agreements and best practices defined by the federation governing the
428 exchange, use, and population of attributes before and after transit, and
429 there should be a way to find information on local authentication and
430 authorization practices for federation members.</p>
433 <h3><a name="2."></a>2. Planning</h3>
434 <p>There are several essential elements that must be present in the environment
435 to ensure Shibboleth functions well, both political and technical. Shibboleth
436 currently runs on a specific range of platforms and web server environments. The
437 SHAR and SHIRE are implemented entirely in C/C++. These are the recommendations
438 and requirements for a successful implementation of a Shibboleth target.</p>
439 <h4><a name="2.a."></a>2.a. Requirements</h4>
441 <p>Shibboleth currently supports Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, Linux, and
442 Solaris. At present, Shibboleth consists of Apache (or IIS) plugins and a
443 separate SHAR process. The plugins use the ONC RPC mechanism to communicate
444 with the SHAR over Unix domain or TCP sockets. The target's web servers must
445 be running <a href="http://http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/">Apache</a>
446 1.3.26+, or Microsoft IIS 4.0+, but not Apache 2. More precise technical
447 details are discussed in <a href="#3.a.">3.a</a>.</p>
449 <h4><a name="2.b."></a>2.b. Join a Federation</h4>
451 <p>While it is not necessary for a target or origin to join a federation,
452 doing so greatly facilitates the implementation of multilateral trust
453 relationships. Each federation will have a different application process.</p>
454 <p>For more information on federations, refer to <a href="#1.d.">1.d</a> or
455 the Shibboleth v1.0 architectural document.</p>
456 <p>To use Shibboleth without a federation, manual configuration of target
457 and origin trust and site information will be needed to insure that sites
458 interoperate. Most identifiers, such as site names, should be URI-based, and
459 should be chosen in accordance with DNS domains under the control of the
460 parties involved, much as Java package naming is coordinated. In other
461 words, don't use a URI containing a DNS domain or hostname that you do not
464 <h4><a name="2.c."></a>2.c. Security Considerations</h4>
466 <p>Shibboleth's protocols and software have been extensively engineered to
467 provide protection against many attacks. However, the most secure protocol
468 can be compromised if it is placed in an insecure environment. To ensure
469 Shibboleth is as secure as possible, there are several recommended security
470 precautions which should be in place at local sites.</p>
472 <li>SSL use is optional for target sites, but should be used if at all
473 possible, at least in the processing of incoming sessions (called the
474 SHIRE URL or assertion consumer service). Federation guidelines should
475 be considered when determining whether to implement SSL, and, in
476 general, SSL should be used for interactions with client machines to
477 provide the necessary authentication and encryption to ensure protection
478 from man-in-the-middle attacks. It is strongly suggested that all
479 password traffic or similarly sensitive data should be SSL-protected.
480 Assessment of the risk tradeoff against possible performance degradation
481 should be performed for all applications.</li>
482 <li>Many other attacks can be made on the several redirection steps that
483 Shibboleth takes to complete attribute transfer. The best protection
484 against this is safeguarding the WAYF service and ensuring that rogue
485 targets and origins are not used, generally by development of the trust
486 model underneath Shibboleth. Shibboleth also leverages DNS for security,
487 which is not uncommon, but attacks concerning bad domain information
488 should be considered.</li>
489 <li>Information regarding origin users is generally provided by the
490 authoritative enterprise directory, and the acceptance of requests from
491 target applications can be carefully restricted to ensure that all
492 requests the SHAR performs are authorized and all information the origin
493 provides is accurate. Use of plaintext passwords is strongly advised
495 <li>Server platforms should be properly secured, commensurate with the
496 level that would be expected for an organization's other security
497 services, and cookie stores on client machines should be well protected.</li>
500 <h4><a name="2.d."></a>2.d. Server Certs</h4>
502 <p>In the Shibboleth architecture, the SHAR, HS, and AA must all have
503 various client and/or server certificates for use in signing assertions and
504 creating SSL channels. These should be issued by a commonly accepted CA,
505 which may be stipulated by your federation. After understanding the CA's
506 acceptible to your federations, consult chapter <a href="#4.c.">4.c</a> for
507 information on certificate and key generation.</p>
509 <h4><a name="2.e."></a>2.e. Attribute Release Policies</h4>
511 <p>The Attribute Authority maintains a set of rules called Attribute Release
512 Policies (ARP's) that define which attributes are released to which targets.
513 When a browser user tries to access a resource, the SHAR asks the origin
514 site AA to release all the attributes it is allowed to know, possibly
515 restricted to specifically desired subset. The SHAR provides its own name
516 and an optional URL on behalf of which the attribute request is made which
517 can further refine the information the SHAR is allowed to know. The AA
518 processes this request using all applicable ARP's, determines which
519 attributes and values it will release, and then obtains the values actually
520 associated with the browser user. The AA sends these attributes and values
521 back to the SHAR.</p>
522 <p>Targets should work together with expected origin sites to ensure that
523 the sets of attributes that both sites expect to correspond using are
526 <h4><a name="2.f."></a>2.f. Designate Contacts</h4>
528 <p>Since Shibboleth deals both with daily technical and operational issues
529 and also with contractual issues, a set of contacts should be set up to
530 support the user base and to facilitate interactions with other Shibboleth
531 sites and federation members. It is recommended that at least technical and
532 administrative contacts be designated. Names, titles, e-mail addresses, and
533 phone numbers may all be useful information to provide.</p>
535 <h4><a name="2.g."></a>2.g. Browser Requirements</h4>
537 <p>A primary Shibboleth design consideration was to require very little or
538 no modification to client machines. The only requirement is that a browser
539 is used which supports cookies, redirection and SSL. Browser users will have
540 to perform an additional click to submit the authentication assertion if
541 JavaScript is not functional.</p>
543 <h4><a name="2.h."></a>2.h. Clocks</h4>
545 <p><a href="http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/">NTP</a> should be run on all
546 web servers. Shibboleth employs a short handle issuance time to protect
547 against replay attacks. Because of this, any significant degree of clock
548 skew can hinder the ability of users to access sites successfully.</p>
550 <h4><a name="2.h."></a>2.i. Other Considerations</h4>
552 <p>Especially for higher education, there are a handful of laws enacted
553 which may have important ramifications on the disclosure of personal
554 information and attributes. Since Shibboleth does not necessarily need to
555 transmit identity, it is an ideal solution for many higher education
556 situations. Nevertheless, all parties within the United States of America
557 are strongly advised to consult the
558 <a href="http://www.ed.gov/offices/OM/fpco/ferpa/">Family Educational Rights
559 and Privacy Act of 1974(FERPA)</a>, and all other relevant state and federal
560 legislation before deploying Shibboleth.</p>
565 <h3><a name="3."></a>3. Installation</h3>
566 <h4><a name="3.a."></a>3.a. Software Requirements</h4>
567 <p>The Shibboleth project makes binary packages available for Solaris and Linux
568 that are precompiled against recent releases of various required libraries such
569 as OpenSSL. It is highly advisable to build from source when using Shibboleth in
570 a production environment in order to permit patching or updating of packages as
571 security holes and bugs are fixed. Building from source is necessary to give you
572 complete control over your deployment platform. The binary packages represent a
573 snapshot in time only. To build from source, see the <span class="fixed">
574 INSTALL.txt</span> files in the doc folder of the OpenSAML and Shibboleth source
576 <p>The software requirements listed correspond to the binary distributions. In
577 general, source builds should work against all recent versions of the operating
578 systems and software dependencies listed below. For specific questions, inquire
579 to the support mailing list, or give it a try. Note that OpenSSL releases
580 frequent security updates; the version listed may not be the most current, but
581 most minor "letter" updates should be usable.</p>
583 <p><b>Operating System:</b> </p>
585 <li>RedHat 7.2-7.3:<ul type="disc">
586 <li><a href="http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/">Apache 1.3.27</a><blockquote>
587 <p>Apache must be compiled with mod_so for DSO module support,
588 and must include SSL support (preferably using
589 <span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span>), and EAPI support (which
590 <span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span> requires and provides).
591 Shibboleth can coexist with <span class="fixed">mod_auth</span>,
592 which may be compiled or loaded into the server for use
593 elsewhere, but Shibboleth does not need or use it. The most
594 recent Red Hat RPM (1.3.27-2 as of this writing) is sufficient.</p>
597 <p>On Linux, Shibboleth requires that Apache and Apache-SSL be
598 built with <span class="fixed">libpthread</span>, or loading the
599 <span class="fixed">mod_shibrm</span> or <span class="fixed">
600 mod_shire</span> modules will cause Apache to stop. While
601 RedHat's Apache is compatible, Debian's Apache must be rebuilt
602 with <span class="fixed">libpthread</span>:</p>
604 <p><span class="fixed">$ export LDFLAGS=-lpthread<br>
605 $ apt-build --rebuild --reinstall install \<br>
606 apache-common apache apache-ssl</span></p>
611 <a href="http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/release/shib-download.html">
612 Shibboleth v1.0.1 Target for RedHat</a></li>
613 <li><a href="http://www.openssl.org/source/">openssl-0.9.6, revision
614 <span class="fixed">i</span> or newer</a></li>
615 <li>libstdc++3-3.0.4-1.i386.rpm and libgcc-3.0.4-1.i386.rpm<blockquote>
616 <p>Shibboleth binaries are currently built with
617 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html">GCC 3.04</a>,
618 and require these specific library versions. They are available
619 as RPMs and are available in the RedHat 7.2 updates directory on
621 <a href="ftp://rufus.w3.org/linux/redhat/updates/7.2/en/os/i386/">
622 RedHat mirror</a>. They can be installed alongside earlier and
623 later GCC libraries.</p>
626 <li><b>Portions of the <span class="fixed">libphp4</span> Apache
627 plugin are written in C++, as is Shibboleth. There is a known
628 conflict between the PHP extensions <span class="fixed">libpspell.so</span>
629 and <span class="fixed">libsablot.so</span> which will manifest
630 itself as segmentation faults when starting Apache. If a site wants
631 to use <span class="fixed">libphp4.so</span> and Shibboleth at once,
632 then one of the following may be done:</b><ol>
633 <li>Remove the options <span class="fixed">--with-pspell</span>
634 and <span class="fixed">--with-xslt-sablot</span> from PHP's
636 <li>Rebuild these two modules using the same version of GCC that
637 was used to compile Shibboleth.</li>
644 <li>Solaris 2.8:<ul type="disc">
645 <li><a HREF="ftp://ftp.openssl.org/source/openssl-0.9.7b.tar.gz">
648 <p>The shared library version of OpenSSL is required by
649 Shibboleth. The static libraries may be installed as well if
650 necessary for other applications, but cannot be used within
651 mod_ssl or any other Apache modules.</p>
654 <li><a href="http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/">Apache 1.3.27</a><blockquote>
655 <p>Apache must be compiled with mod_so for DSO module support,
656 and must include SSL support (preferably using
657 <span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span>) and EAPI support (which
658 <span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span> requires and provides).
659 Shibboleth can coexist with <span class="fixed">mod_auth</span>,
660 which may be compiled or loaded into the server for use
661 elsewhere, but Shibboleth does not need or use it.</p>
662 <p><span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span>'s loadable module,
663 <span class="fixed">libssl.so</span>, must be compiled against
664 <span class="fixed">OpenSSL 0.9.7b</span>'s shared libraries.
665 Other versions or a statically linked build of
666 <span class="fixed">libssl.so</span> will cause failures such as
667 bus errors when used with Shibboleth.</p>
668 <p>To check how OpenSSL was built, run the <span class="fixed">
669 ldd</span> command against <span class="fixed">libssl.so</span>
670 in the Apache <span class="fixed">/libexec/</span> folder and
671 check the output for references to <span class="fixed">
672 libssl.so.0.9.7b</span>. If you see an earlier version
673 mentioned, or no mention of it at all, then <span class="fixed">
674 OpenSSL 0.9.7b</span> must be built with shared libraries from
675 source, and the Apache module rebuilt with it.</p>
679 <a href="ftp://ftp.sunfreeware.com/pub/freeware/sparc/8/libgcc-3.2.2-sol8-sparc-local.gz">
680 libgcc v3.2.2+ and libstdc++ v3.2.2+</a><blockquote>
681 <p>Shibboleth binaries are currently built with
682 <a HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html">GCC 3.2.2</a>,
683 and require these specific library versions or newer. They are
684 available as Sun freeware packages and can be installed
685 alongside earlier and later GCC libraries.</p>
689 <a href="http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/release/shib-download.html">
690 Shibboleth v1.0.1 Target for Solaris</a></li>
691 <li><b>Portions of the <span class="fixed">libphp4</span> Apache
692 plugin are written in C++, as is Shibboleth. There is a known
693 conflict with the PHP extensions <span class="fixed">libpspell.so</span>
694 and <span class="fixed">libsablot.so</span> which will manifest
695 itself as segmentation faults when starting Apache. If a site wants
696 to use <span class="fixed">libphp4.so</span> and Shibboleth at once,
697 then one of the following may be done:</b><ol>
698 <li>Remove the options <span class="fixed">--with-pspell</span>
699 and <span class="fixed">--with-xslt-sablot</span> from PHP's
701 <li>Rebuild these two modules using the same version of GCC that
702 was used to compile Shibboleth.</li>
709 <li>RedHat 8 and 9:<blockquote>
710 <p>RedHat 8 and 9 ship with Apache 2, which is not yet supported by
711 Shibboleth. To run Shibboleth under this OS,
712 <a href="http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/">Apache 1.3.27</a> must
716 <p>Apache must be compiled with mod_so for DSO module support, and
717 must include SSL support (preferably using <span class="fixed">
718 mod_ssl</span>), and EAPI support (which <span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span>
719 requires and provides). Shibboleth can coexist with
720 <span class="fixed">mod_auth</span>, which may be compiled or loaded
721 into the server for use elsewhere, but Shibboleth does not need or
722 use it. The most recent Red Hat RPM (1.3.23-14 as of this writing)
726 <p>On Linux, Shibboleth requires that Apache and Apache-SSL be built
727 with <span class="fixed">libpthread</span>, or loading the
728 <span class="fixed">mod_shibrm</span> or <span class="fixed">
729 mod_shire</span> modules will cause Apache to stop. While RedHat's
730 Apache is compatible, Debian's Apache must be rebuilt with
731 <span class="fixed">libpthread</span>:</p>
733 <p><span class="fixed">$ export LDFLAGS=-lpthread<br>
734 $ apt-build --rebuild --reinstall install apache-common \<br>
735 apache apache-ssl</span></p>
740 <a href="http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/release/shib-download.html">
741 Shibboleth 1.0.1 Target for RedHat</a></li>
742 <li><a href="http://www.openssl.org/source/">openssl-0.9.6, revision
743 <span class="fixed">i</span> or newer</a></li>
744 <li>libstdc++3-3.0.4-1.i386.rpm and libgcc-3.0.4-1.i386.rpm
746 <p>Shibboleth binaries are currently built with
747 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html">GCC 3.04</a>,
748 and require these specific library versions. They are available
749 as RPMs and are available in the RedHat 7.2 updates directory on
751 <a href="ftp://rufus.w3.org/linux/redhat/updates/7.2/en/os/i386/">
752 RedHat mirror</a>. They can be installed alongside earlier and
753 later GCC libraries.</p>
756 <li><b>Portions of the <span class="fixed">libphp4</span> Apache
757 plugin are written in C++, as is Shibboleth. There is a known
758 conflict with the PHP extensions <span class="fixed">libpspell.so</span>
759 and <span class="fixed">libsablot.so</span> which will manifest
760 itself as segmentation faults when starting Apache. If a site wants
761 to use <span class="fixed">libphp4.so</span> and Shibboleth at once,
762 then one of the following may be done:</b>
764 <li>Remove the options <span class="fixed">--with-pspell</span>
765 and <span class="fixed">--with-xslt-sablot</span> from PHP's
767 <li>Rebuild these two modules using the same version of GCC that
768 was used to compile Shibboleth. </li>
775 <h4><a name="3.b."></a>3.b. Deploy the Shibboleth Package</h4>
777 <p>For the sake of clarity, this deployment guide assumes that standard
778 directories are used for all installations. These directories may be changed
779 for local implementations, but must be done so consistently.</p>
781 <li>Ensure that you have obtained the proper
782 <a href="http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/release/shib-download.html">
783 tarball</a> for your operating system.</li>
784 <li>On Unix, the tarballs expand into <span class="fixed">
785 /opt/shibboleth</span>, and should be expanded as <span class="fixed">
786 root</span> from <span class="fixed">/</span>. If you use a different
787 layout or location, you will need to adjust your configuration files.
788 You should see the following directory structure (date and size details
789 notwithstanding):<blockquote>
790 <p><span class="fixed">$ ls -l<br>
791 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 24 03:54 bin<br>
792 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 24 03:54 doc<br>
793 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 24 03:54 etc<br>
794 drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 Oct 24 03:54 include<br>
795 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 24 03:55 lib<br>
796 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 24 03:55 libexec<br>
797 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 24 02:02 share</span></p>
799 <p>On Windows, until a real installer is available, the zip file should
800 be unpacked beneath the root of the system drive, where it will create
801 an <span class="fixed">\opt\shibboleth</span> tree that resembles the
802 Unix layout above. This will allow the standard configuration options to
803 work. <b>The <span class="fixed">C:\opt\shibboleth\lib</span> directory
804 MUST be added to the system path to enable proper operation.</b> </li>
807 <h4><a name="3.c."></a>3.c. Configure Apache 1.3.x</h4>
810 <li>Shibboleth includes configuration directives in the file
811 <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/apache.config</span>
812 which must be added to the httpd.conf file used locally. It is
813 recommended that these directives simply be added to the end of the
814 existing <span class="fixed">httpd.conf</span> file rather than trying
815 to merge it in-line; <a href="#3.c.2.">step 2</a> describes the
816 necessary modifications to the Apache startup script. The default
817 configuration will often work, but if customization is necessary, these
818 options may be modified:<dl>
819 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">LoadModule <module>
820 <pathname></span> </dd>
821 <dd class="value">Specifies the title and location of the
822 <span class="fixed">shibrm_module</span> resource manager and
823 <span class="fixed">shire_module</span> SHIRE modules. These are
824 installed by default at <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/libexec/mod_shibrm.so</span>
825 and <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/libexec/mod_shire.so</span></dd>
826 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">SHIREConfig <pathname></span>
828 <dd class="value">Specifies the <span class="fixed">pathname</span>
829 of the SHIRE's configuration file. Defaults to <span class="fixed">
830 /opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/shibboleth.ini</span>.</dd>
831 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">SHIREURL <url><br>
832 <Location <url>><br>
833 SetHandler <method><br>
834 </Location></span></dd>
835 <dd class="value">Specifies the <span class="fixed">URL</span> and
836 the <span class="fixed">method</span> the target uses to handle
837 requests for Shibboleth-protected resources. Currently,
838 <span class="fixed">shib-shire-post</span> is the only available
839 handler <span class="fixed">method</span>. <span class="fixed">
840 SHIREURL</span> is used by Shibboleth when re-directing the user to
841 the WAYF and <span class="fixed"><Location></span> by Apache; for
842 this reason, both <span class="fixed">URL</span> specifications must
843 match. Note that the configuration file itself contains <>'s, and
844 <span class="fixed">Location</span> should not be replaced.<p>The
845 referenced <span class="fixed">URL</span> can be either a partial
846 path or an absolute URL. The partial path allows each virtual server
847 to use its own hostname and port in the SHIRE for session cookie
848 purposes, while the absolute URL forces HTTP virtual servers to use
849 HTTPS for the SHIRE. Use of a full <span class="fixed">https://</span>
851 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">ShibMapAttribute
852 <attribute-uri> <HTTP-header> [alias]</span> </dd>
853 <dd class="value"><b>This command has been deprecated in favor of
854 the configuration support available in the Attribute Acceptance
855 Policy file. See <a href="#4.e.">section 4.e.</a> It may be removed
856 in a future release.</b></dd>
859 <li><a name="3.c.2."></a>These modifications must be made to the Apache
860 startup script:<p>Add the following environment variable:</p>
862 <p><span class="fixed">SHIBCONFIG=/opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/shibboleth.ini<br>
863 export SHIBCONFIG</span></p>
865 <p>If the OpenSSL libraries are not in the system's search path, they
866 should be added to <span class="fixed">LD_LIBRARY_PATH</span>. Generally
867 libtool's linker options will insure that the modules can locate the
868 Shibboleth libraries, but if not, you may need to add
869 <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/lib</span> to <span class="fixed">
870 LD_LIBRARY_PATH</span> as well.</p>
871 <p>If the SHIBCONFIG environment variable is not specified, Shibboleth
872 will use <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/shibboleth.ini</span>
874 <li>The SHAR must be started along with Apache. Among other methods on
875 Unix, this can be done either by creating a separate SHAR startup script
876 or by modifying Apache's RC script to start/stop the <span class="fixed">
877 SHAR</span> <b>before</b> <span class="fixed">httpd</span>. It is
878 suggested that Apache's script be modified by adding:<blockquote>
879 <p><span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/bin/shar -f &</span> </p>
881 <p>Sample <span class="fixed">init.d</span> scripts may be included with
882 future releases. Ensure that the environment variable referenced in
883 <a href="#3.c.2">3.c.2</a> are in place.</li>
884 <li>By default, the Shibboleth modules are configured to log information
885 on behalf of Apache to the file <span class="fixed">
886 /opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/shire.log</span>, though this can be
887 changed. For this log to be created, Apache must have permission to
888 write to this file, which may require that the file be manually created
889 and permissions assigned to whatever user Apache is configured to run
890 under. If the file does not appear when Apache runs with the modules
891 loaded, check for permission problems. </li>
892 <li>The options in <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> must be
893 configured as documented in <a href="#4.a.">4.a</a>. Apache content will
894 then need to be modified for Shibboleth authentication. This is
895 discussed in <a href="#4.d.">4.d</a>. It is recommended that the target
896 then be tested as detailed in section <a href="#5.a.">5.a</a>.</li>
899 <h4><a name="3.d."></a>3.d. Configure Microsoft IIS</h4>
902 <li>The package includes an ISAPI filter and bundled extension for SHIRE
903 POST processing in a single library, <span class="fixed">libexec\isapi_shib.dll</span>.
904 This filter is configured using commands in <span class="fixed">
905 C:\opt\shibboleth\etc\shibboleth\shibboleth.ini</span>. Make sure you've
906 added the library directory to the path as directed in <a href="#3.b.">
907 section 3.b.</a><p>Installing the extension into IIS is a two step
908 process:<ol type="1">
909 <li type="a">First, add the filter using the Internet Services
910 Manager MMC console. Right click on the machine icon on the left,
911 and edit the WWW Service master properties. On the "ISAPI Filters"
912 tab, add a new filter called Shibboleth and specify the DLL named
913 above. The priority should be High, and once the filter is loaded,
914 make sure it appears in the list <b>below</b> the "sspifilt" entry.
915 Restart IIS and make sure the filter shows up with a green arrow.
916 Check the Windows event log if it fails to load. The default
917 configuration options are sparse, but they should allow the filter
918 to at least initialize.</li>
919 <li type="a">Secondly, map a special file extension, such as
920 <span class="fixed">.shire</span>, to the ISAPI library so that
921 virtual URLs can be specified to invoke the SHIRE handler for each
922 web site. Right click on the machine icon on the left, and edit the
923 WWW Service master properties. On the "Home Directory" tab, add a
924 script mapping using the "Configuration" button. The "Executable"
925 box should point to the filter/extension library, and the
926 "Extension" can be set to anything unlike to conflict, but
927 <span class="fixed">.shire</span> is assumed (and the dot must be
928 included). You should select the option to limit verbs to POST, and
929 you must uncheck the "Check that file exists" box.</li>
932 <li>All other aspects of configuration are handled via the
933 <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> file and associated XML-based
934 policy files described in subsequent sections. Particular use is made of
935 the per-hostname section feature that allows global settings to be
936 overridden per-site, and this permits different IIS instances to be
937 separately configured.</li>
938 <li>A special section must be added/uncommented in the
939 <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> file to support IIS usage. The
940 <span class="fixed">[isapi]</span> section must be used to map IIS
941 Instance ID numbers to fully-qualified hostnames that correspond to
942 named sections later in the file. Instance IDs are used in the IIS
943 metabase to identify web sites. They are applied starting with the
944 number 1 and number the web sites in order in the Internet Services
945 Manager from top to bottom. In the <span class="fixed">[isapi]</span>
946 section, add lines in the following form:
947 <blockquote class="fixed">
948 <p>1=hostname.domain.com<br>
949 2=hostname2.domain.com<br>
952 <p>At least an empty configuration section named <span class="fixed">
953 hostname.domain.com</span> should then be added to the end of the file.
954 Any options specific to that web site can be added as documented in
956 <li>See the following section for information on running the SHAR
957 service on Windows.</li>
958 <li>The options in <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> must be
959 configured as documented in <a href="#4.a.">4.a</a>. It is recommended
960 that the target then be tested as detailed in section <a href="#5.a.">
964 <h4><a name="3.e."></a>3.e. Running the SHAR on Windows</h4>
966 <p>The SHAR is a console application that is primarily designed to be
967 installed as a Windows service. To run the process in console mode for
968 testing, the <span class="fixed">-console</span> parameter is used.
969 Otherwise, parameters are used to install (or remove) the SHAR from the
970 service database and subsequent control is via the Service Control Manager
971 applet. The following command line parameters can be used:</p>
973 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">-console</span></dd>
974 <dd class="value">Allows the process to be started from a command
975 prompt. Since the console will exit if the desktop user logs out, this
976 is not suitable for production use, but may be useful for testing.</dd>
977 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">-config <pathname></span> </dd>
978 <dd class="value">Specifies the pathname of the SHAR's configuration
979 file. Defaults to <span class="fixed">\opt\shibboleth\etc\shibboleth\shibboleth.ini</span>
980 or the value of the <span class="fixed">SHIBCONFIG</span> environment
981 variable, if it is set.</dd>
982 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">-install <servicename></span></dd>
983 <dd class="value">Installs the SHAR as a named service in the Windows
984 service database. A name should be provided if multiple instances of the
985 SHAR need to be run on different ports, and thus installed separately.
986 The <span class="fixed">-config</span> option can be provided to include
987 a specific configuration file on the service's command line.</dd>
988 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">-remove <servicename></span></dd>
989 <dd class="value">Removes the named service instance of the SHAR from
990 the Windows service database.</dd>
996 <h3><a name="4."></a>4. Getting Running</h3>
997 <h4><a name="4.a."></a>4.a. Configuring <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span></h4>
999 <p>Most of the configuration for the SHAR, SHIRE, and RM is stored in the
1000 file <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span>. This file is split into
1001 several pre-defined sections. The first sections, <span class="fixed">
1002 [general]</span>, <span class="fixed">[shire]</span>, and
1003 <span class="fixed">[shar]</span>, define the operational parameters for the
1004 <span class="fixed">SHIRE</span> and <span class="fixed">SHAR</span>. While
1005 not precisely accurate, the <span class="fixed">[shire]</span> section is
1006 generally associated with the web server modules and libraries that
1007 applications interface with, while the <span class="fixed">[shar]</span>
1008 section is associated with the separate SHAR process. The
1009 <span class="fixed">[general]</span> section holds global settings, used by
1010 all components. The <span class="fixed">[shire]</span> and
1011 <span class="fixed">[shar]</span> sections can override the
1012 <span class="fixed">[general]</span> tags with SHIRE- or SHAR-specific
1013 configuration. For example, if the SHAR is looking for a tag, it will look
1014 first in the <span class="fixed">shar</span> section; if it does not find
1015 the tag there, it will proceed to look in the <span class="fixed">general</span>
1017 <p>The following sections, <span class="fixed">[metadata_shire]</span>,
1018 <span class="fixed">[metadata_shar]</span>, and <span class="fixed">
1019 [policies]</span>, define the trust framework within which the entire system
1020 operates. Example configuration files are bundled with the Shibboleth
1021 distribution, currently derived from the InQueue staging federation managed
1023 <p>For Apache (but not IIS), there is also information that must be
1024 configured in <span class="fixed">/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf</span>
1025 (or equivalent); for more information, refer to <a href="#3.c.2.">3.c</a>.</p>
1026 <p>Information in the logging configuration files referenced by
1027 <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> may require additional changes to
1028 meet local needs. The logging level can be raised to <span class="fixed">
1029 INFO</span> or <span class="fixed">DEBUG</span> if additional detail is
1030 needed for testing. It is recommended that after initial installation is
1031 completed, the log level in both files be left at either <span class="fixed">
1032 INFO</span> or <span class="fixed">WARN</span>.</p>
1033 <p>Fields that are purple are optional; grey fields are mandatory. If the
1034 option only applies to a specific environment, such as IIS/ISAPI only, then
1035 this is indicated.</p>
1036 <p><span class="fixed">[general]</span>:</p>
1038 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">logger = <pathname></span></dd>
1039 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the <span class="fixed">
1040 log4cpp</span> configuration file for most Shibboleth events. This
1041 element may also be optionally specified for each of the components
1042 individually (which is the default provided, so this setting is often
1043 unused). Default logging settings (using local log files) should
1044 suffice. If using a remote syslogd instead, the <span class="fixed">
1045 syslog</span> daemon must accept <span class="fixed">UDP:514</span>
1046 messages, and on Linux, <span class="fixed">SYSLOGD_OPTIONS</span> must
1047 include <span class="fixed">-r</span> to enable logging from remote
1048 machines. The logging level is also defined in the logger configuration
1049 file. The configuration format and log levels are similar to that of the
1050 <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/docs/documentation.html">Log4j</a>
1051 package's property format.</dd>
1052 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">schemadir = <pathname></span></dd>
1053 <dd class="value">Specifies the directory in which the XML schema files
1054 are located; defaults to <span class="fixed">
1055 /opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/</span>. This should generally be left
1056 alone, unless a non-default installation path is used.</dd>
1057 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">sharsocket = <pathname> | [IP
1058 interface:]port</span></dd>
1059 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the socket the SHAR uses to
1060 form connections. Note that if you change this, the SHAR and Apache
1061 should both be restarted immediately, since new Apache child processes
1062 will use the changed value as soon as they start up.
1063 <p>On Unix, this is usually set to a domain socket path, often something
1064 in <span class="fixed">/tmp</span>. On Windows, this must be either a
1065 TCP port number, or a combination of an IP address and port, with a
1066 colon in between. Using an address specifies an IP interface to bind to
1067 on multi-homed servers. Using just a port number generally suffices. If
1068 this syntax is used on Unix, then the process will use a TCP socket
1069 instead of a domain socket. </p>
1070 <p><b>Security Note:</b> Using TCP, which is mandatory on Windows, can
1071 be insecure if used in certain non-default configurations. If you allow
1072 access to the service from other hosts, be sure a firewall is in place
1073 to prevent unauthorized access. The <span class="fixed">sharacl</span>
1074 setting, described later, provides some minimal filtering, but TCP is
1075 still an insecure protocol.</dd>
1077 <p>The rest of the <span class="fixed">[general]</span> configuration
1078 section defines global settings that can be overridden by server-specific
1079 tags in sections defined by the server name. This is especially applicable
1080 for non-Apache configurations. For example, if you have a web server named
1081 www.example.edu, you can define a section <span class="fixed">[www.example.edu]</span>
1082 and override global tags with tags for that server only.</p>
1083 <p>The following table lists the server-specific tags. It is broken into
1084 mandatory tags, and optional tags. Tags in the <span class="fixed">[general]</span>
1085 section correspond to all servers; to override specific tags on a per-server
1086 basis, use <span class="fixed">[<FQDN>]</span> as the header for a section (FQDN
1087 means fully-qualified domain name, and corresponds to the name you assign to
1088 a virtual host using the Apache ServerName directive, or that you map IIS
1089 instance IDs to using the <span class="fixed">[isapi]</span> section.</p>
1090 <p><span class="fixed">[<general>]</span>:</p>
1092 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">wayfURL = <absolute url></span></dd>
1093 <dd class="value">Specifies the URL of the WAYF service the user is
1094 redirected to. Federations will often provide this URL in order to
1095 control the way in which sites are presented to users, but a target may
1096 provide this function, or it may be set directly to a specific site's
1097 Handle Service, effectively rendering the system internal to a single
1099 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">shireURL = <absolute or
1100 relative url></span> ISAPI</dd>
1101 <dd class="value">Specifies the URL of the SHIRE POST URL, or assertion
1102 consumer service, at which new sessions are initiated. This can be an
1103 absolute URL, or a relative path to be prefixed by the base URL of the
1104 web site. Using an absolute URL allows a virtual server to funnel SHIRE
1105 requests to a fixed location, such as in the case where a non-SSL site
1106 wants to handle SHIRE requests over SSL (on a different port).
1107 <p>Note that this URL will result in a cookie being set, and this cookie
1108 must be returned in subsequent requests, so the virtual server's domain
1109 name and port must be consistent with the SHIRE's domain name and port
1110 for some browsers to properly return the cookie. If default ports are
1111 used (and thus left unspecified), browsers will generally return cookies
1112 set via SSL to a non-SSL server. If non-default ports are used, it is
1113 recommended that this be a relative URL so that each virtual host
1114 handles its own cookie operations.</p>
1115 <p>For Shibboleth to function in IIS, the file extension at the end of
1116 this URL must match the value configured into IIS and mapped to the
1117 ISAPI extension. This causes the request to be serviced properly, even
1118 though no file by that name actually exists.</dd>
1119 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">cookieName = <string></span></dd>
1120 <dd class="value">Defines the name to be assigned to in-memory session
1122 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">shireError = <pathname></span></dd>
1123 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the template for the error
1124 page generated when there is an error re-directing the user to the WAYF
1125 or processing a new session sign-on.</dd>
1126 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">rmError = <pathname></span></dd>
1127 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the template for the error
1128 page generated if internal errors occur in the RM.</dd>
1129 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">accessError = <pathname></span></dd>
1130 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the template for the page
1131 displayed to users when access to a protected resource is denied by the
1132 RM. This is distinct from when errors occur during the evaluation
1133 process itself, and indicates a denial of authorization.</dd>
1134 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">normalizeRequest = <true|false></span></dd>
1135 <dd class="valueopt">If true, all redirects and computed request URLs
1136 generated by Shibboleth will be created using the virtual server name
1137 assigned to the server. If <span class="fixed">false</span>, the
1138 browser's supplied URL is sometimes used to compute the information.
1139 This sometimes has no effect, depending on the capabilities of the web
1140 server, since the correct behavior is almost always to rely on the
1141 server's API to report the hostname and ignore the browser.</dd>
1142 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">checkIPAddress = <true|false></span></dd>
1143 <dd class="valueopt">If <span class="fixed">true</span>, Shibboleth will
1144 check client addresses for impersonation protection. In most
1145 circumstances, this should be enabled to prevent certain attacks
1146 concerning stolen cookies, but this can cause problems for users behind
1147 proxies or NAT devices. Defaults to <span class="fixed">false</span>.</dd>
1148 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">shireSSLOnly = <true/false></span></dd>
1149 <dd class="valueopt">If <span class="fixed">true</span>, the SHIRE will
1150 reject HTTP connections for new session sign-on that are not SSL-protected.
1151 This guards the initial session sign-on from the browser, but does not
1152 preclude non-SSL content. Use of SSL is strongly recommended; see
1153 section <a href="#2.c.">2.c</a> for more information.</dd>
1154 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">mustContain =
1155 <string1>;<string2></span> ISAPI</dd>
1156 <dd class="valueopt">Controls what content in IIS to protect with
1157 Shibboleth. Multiple values should be separated with a semicolon. Each
1158 string is matched directly against the requested URL, and if the URL
1159 contains the string, a match is made and Shibboleth applies. No regular
1160 expressions are supported, only literal matches. Slashes are matched
1161 like other characters, so path components can be surrounded with slashes
1162 to match any requests with a particular component in the path. Defaults
1163 to protecting everything on a server or site.</dd>
1164 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">contentSSLOnly = <true|false></span>
1166 <dd class="valueopt">If <span class="fixed">true</span>, Shibboleth will
1167 insist that any request for protected content is over an SSL connection.
1168 Defaults to <span class="fixed">false</span>.</dd>
1169 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">authLifetime = <seconds></span>
1171 <dd class="valueopt">If set, sessions are always terminated after the
1172 specified number of seconds, resulting in a new redirect and request for
1173 authentication, just as if a new request without a session is received.
1174 Defaults to infinite.</dd>
1175 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">authTimeout = <seconds></span>
1177 <dd class="valueopt">If set, sessions are always terminated after the
1178 specified number of seconds of inactivity (defined as no requests
1179 received in that session), resulting in a new redirect and request for
1180 authentication, just as if a new request without a session is received.
1181 Defaults to infinite.</dd>
1182 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">requestAttributes = <attr1>
1183 <attr2> <attr3>...</span> </dd>
1184 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies a space-delimited list of attributes
1185 (named by a designated URI) that the SHAR will request when querying for
1186 attributes. By default, the SHAR will ask for and receive all attributes
1187 the AA is willing to release to it.</dd>
1188 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">exportAssertion = <true|false></span>
1190 <dd class="valueopt">If set, the SAML attribute assertion received by
1191 the SHAR is exported to a CGI request header called Shib-Attributes,
1192 encoded in base64. Defaults to <span class="fixed">false</span>. While
1193 this does require parsing the raw XML, it also permits an application to
1194 see attributes that may have been filtered by an AAP, or to forward the
1195 SAML assertion to a third party.</dd>
1196 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">supportContact = <e-mail></span></dd>
1197 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the local site's support e-mail address,
1198 and is used in the generation of error pages.</dd>
1199 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">logoLocation = <pathname></span></dd>
1200 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the location of the logo used in the
1201 generation of error pages. This logo can be in any format that the web
1202 browser will understand, and should be a URL (absolute or relative) that
1203 will return a valid logo.</dd>
1205 <p><span class="fixed">[shire]</span>:</p>
1207 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">metadata = <section tag></span></dd>
1208 <dd class="value">Specifies the tag that defines the section of
1209 <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> the SHIRE should use to
1210 acquire its metadata. The SHIRE does not need trust metadata, and so
1211 generally it will only need site metadata and attribute acceptance
1212 policy to define attributes and enforce policies like scope
1213 limitations(e.g. MIT not asserting attributes @brown.edu.)</dd>
1214 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">logger = <pathname></span></dd>
1215 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the location of the <span class="fixed">
1216 log4cpp</span> configuration file for Shibboleth events produced by the
1217 web server modules and libraries. Refer to the global setting for more
1219 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">aap-uri = <uri></span>
1221 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the URI of an attribute acceptance policy
1222 XML file. This command has been replaced with a new metadata provider
1223 type for attribute policy that should be provided to both the SHIRE and
1224 SHAR components. To replace this command, add lines to both metadata
1225 sections of this form:
1226 <blockquote class="fixed">
1227 <p>edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.target.AAP.XML=<uri></p>
1229 <p>For more information, refer to section <a href="#4.e.">4.e</a>. This
1230 command will be removed in future releases.</dd>
1232 <p><span class="fixed">[shar]</span>:</p>
1234 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">metadata = <tag></span></dd>
1235 <dd class="value">Specifies the tag that defines the section of
1236 <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> the SHAR should use to acquire
1237 its site, trust, and attribute metadata.</dd>
1238 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">cacheType = <method></span></dd>
1239 <dd class="value">Specifies the method used by the SHAR to cache
1240 sessions and attributes. The default is <span class="fixed">memory</span>,
1241 which indicates that the SHAR should store received attributes in
1242 memory. Another option is <span class="fixed">mysql</span>, which will
1243 use the MySQL Credential Cache, if it is available.</dd>
1244 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">cacheClean = <seconds></span></dd>
1245 <dd class="value">Specifies the duration in seconds between cleanups of
1246 the SHAR's cached but expired sessions and attributes. Defaults to
1247 <span class="fixed">300</span>, or 5 minutes.</dd>
1248 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">cacheTimeout = <seconds></span></dd>
1249 <dd class="value">Specifies the duration in <span class="fixed">seconds</span>
1250 that must elapse between user accesses before that user's session is
1251 destroyed, including the associated handle and all cached attributes.
1252 Defaults to <span class="fixed">28800</span> seconds, or 8 hours. This
1253 should generally be longer than the associated server's settings for
1254 session lifetime and timeout.</dd>
1255 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">logger = <pathname></span></dd>
1256 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the location of the <span class="fixed">
1257 log4cpp</span> configuration file for Shibboleth events produced by the
1258 SHAR service. Refer to the global setting for more information.</dd>
1259 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">sharacl = <IP Address></span></dd>
1260 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies one or more space-delimited IP addresses
1261 from which a TCP-based SHAR service will accept connections. Defaults to
1262 127.0.0.1 (localhost). Should only be changed if proper precautions have
1263 been taken to protect connections from off-host.</dd>
1264 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">certFile = <pathname></span>
1266 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the location of the PEM-format
1267 certificate used by the SHAR to communicate in authenticated fashion
1268 with origin site Attribute Authorities.</dd>
1269 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">keyFile = <pathname></span>
1271 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the location of the PEM-format private
1272 key used by the SHAR to communicate in authenticated fashion with origin
1273 site Attribute Authorities.</dd>
1274 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">keyPass = <password></span>
1276 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the <span class="fixed">password</span>
1277 used to access the <span class="fixed">keyFile</span>, if any.</dd>
1278 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">calist = <pathname></span>
1280 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies a single file of PEM-format certificates
1281 containing the root CAs the SHAR will consider to be valid signers of AA
1282 server certificates. Currently applies globally to all communication
1284 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">AATimeout = <seconds></span>
1286 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the number of seconds that the SHAR will
1287 wait for attributes to be sent from an AA. Defaults to
1288 <span class="fixed">60</span>.</dd>
1289 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">AAConnectTimeout =
1290 <seconds></span> </dd>
1291 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the number of seconds that the SHAR will
1292 wait for a connection to be established with an AA. Defaults to
1293 <span class="fixed">30</span>.</dd>
1295 <p><span class="fixed">[metadata]</span> sections must be created and named
1296 in accordance with the value of the <span class="fixed">metadata</span>
1297 parameter in the <span class="fixed">[shire]</span> and <span class="fixed">
1298 [shar]</span> sections. Metadata sections may be shared or defined for each
1299 component. Three XML-based providers are supported by Shibboleth, but future
1300 providers may be specified with name/value pairs consisting of
1301 <span class="fixed"><metadata provider type>=<source></span>.</p>
1302 <p>Note that any number of files of the three types may be loaded into the
1303 system, which supports aggregating policy from across federations.</p>
1304 <p>Shibboleth provides a simple utility called <span class="fixed">
1305 siterefresh</span> for updating metadata files from a central location and
1306 verifying a digital signature over them, as described in section
1307 <a href="#4.g.">4.g</a>.</p>
1308 <p><span class="fixed">[<metadata>]</span>:</p>
1310 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">
1311 edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.metadata.XML = <pathname></span></dd>
1312 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the file to load site
1313 metadata from. This information controls what origin sites are trusted
1314 by the target and provides contact information. This should be a file
1315 stored locally, and may be used by both the SHIRE and SHAR.</dd>
1316 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">
1317 edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.trust.XML = <pathname></span></dd>
1318 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the trust database of
1319 certificates and/or CA roots used by the SHAR during session initiation
1320 (but currently is not used during attribute exchange). The SHIRE
1321 component generally does not need trust data.</dd>
1322 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">
1323 edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.target.AAP.XML = <pathname></span></dd>
1324 <dd class="value">Specifies the location of the Attribute Acceptance
1325 Policy file that defines what attributes will be visible to
1326 applications, how to filter their values based on the source, and how to
1327 make them available to applications and the RM. See <a href="#4.e.">
1328 section 4.e.</a> for detailed information on this file.<p><b>This
1329 provider has been added as of version 1.0.1, and supersedes the old
1330 <span class="fixed">aap-uri</span> and <span class="fixed">attributes</span>
1331 settings, as well as the Apache <span class="fixed">ShibMapAttribute</span>
1334 <p>The <span class="fixed">[extensions:saml]</span> section specifies a set
1335 of extension libraries to load that add additional functionality to the
1336 system. Examples include session cache implementations, such as the MySQL
1337 cache, or advanced metadata providers.</p>
1338 <p><span class="fixed">[extensions:saml]</span>:</p>
1340 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed"><name> = <library pathname></span>
1342 <dd class="value">The name of the extension is simply a unique key and
1343 is not important. The path to the library to load must be absolute and
1346 <p>The <span class="fixed">[policies]</span> section contains the policy URI
1347 values that control acceptance of assertions from origin sites. This may
1348 eventually have multiple elements associated it for targets that are members
1349 of multiple federations.</p>
1350 <p><span class="fixed">[policies]</span>:</p>
1352 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed"><federation> = <URI></span>
1354 <dd class="value">The name of the <span class="fixed">federation</span>
1355 and its associated policy <span class="fixed">URI</span>. This
1356 information should be provided by federations and is designed to support
1357 future work in federation deployment. For the time being, it simply
1358 insures that deployments not meant to interoperate will not do so.<p>
1359 This set of URI values is matched against the SAML <span class="fixed">
1360 Audience</span> fields of assertions received from HS's and AA's. One of
1361 the URI's specified by the origin in the <span class="fixed">
1362 edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.audiences</span> property must match
1363 one of these URIs or the assertion will not be accepted by design.</dd>
1366 <h4><a name="4.b."></a>4.b. Dynamic Error Page Generation</h4>
1368 <p>Shibboleth supports the dynamic generation of information in error pages
1369 referenced by <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span>. The Shib Target
1370 employs a special Markup Language Processor to insert special tags into the
1371 generated HTML. The parser will read the error file looking for any tag that
1374 <p><span class="fixed"><shibmlp tag-name /></span> </p>
1376 <p>Shibboleth will replace <span class="fixed">tag-name</span> with the
1377 appropriate markup tag from the table below:</p>
1379 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">supportContact</span></dd>
1380 <dd class="value">The value of the <span class="fixed">supportContact</span>
1381 for this web site.</dd>
1382 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">logoLocation</span></dd>
1383 <dd class="value">The value of the <span class="fixed">logoLocation</span>
1384 for this web site. This is used to fill in the template error page only;
1385 if a custom error page is created, then the image may be linked to
1386 statically by the page itself.</dd>
1387 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">requestURL</span></dd>
1388 <dd class="value">The user's requested URL.</dd>
1389 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">errorType</span></dd>
1390 <dd class="value">The type of error.</dd>
1391 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">errorText</span></dd>
1392 <dd class="value">The actual error message.</dd>
1393 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">errorDesc</span></dd>
1394 <dd class="value">A textual description of the error intended for human
1396 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">originContactName</span></dd>
1397 <dd class="value">The contact name for the origin site provided by that
1398 site's metadata.</dd>
1399 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">originContactEmail</span></dd>
1400 <dd class="value">The contact email address for the origin site provided
1401 by that site's metadata.</dd>
1402 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">originErrorURL</span></dd>
1403 <dd class="value">The URL of an error handling page for the origin site
1404 provided by that site's metadata.</dd>
1406 <p>This configuration is only for Apache servers, and is only used by
1407 resources protected by Shibboleth. See <a href="#4.d.">section 4.d.</a></p>
1408 <p>Sample error templates for different kinds of errors are included in the
1409 Shibboleth distribution, and can be triggered by anything that will cause
1410 Shibboleth to be unable to make an authorization decision, including a bad
1411 sites file, certificate verification failures, or a skewed clock between
1413 <p><b>You should edit these templates, provide or remove style sheets and
1414 images, and otherwise customize these templates to suit the user experience
1415 you want your users to have when errors occur. The defaults are not likely
1416 to meet the needs of any site.</b></p>
1418 <h4><a name="4.c."></a>4.c. Key Generation and Certificate Installation</h4>
1420 <p>The only target component that must have a private key and certificate is
1421 the SHAR. While the target server itself should support SSL in most cases
1422 for users, it is mandatory for the SHAR to authenticate when contacting an
1423 AA, and it must therefore be given a key and an SSL client certificate. It
1424 is permissible for the SHAR to use the same keypair and certificate used by
1425 the target server itself, provided the certificate is signed by a CA
1426 accepted by the community of sites.</p>
1427 <p>The certificate and key file location should be based on whether they
1428 will also be used for Apache. If they will be used as a server certificate
1429 as well, they should probably be in the Apache tree in the usual
1430 <span class="fixed">mod_ssl</span>-defined locations inside the Apache
1431 configuration folder., and the SHAR can read them from there. If the SHAR is
1432 not running as <span class="fixed">root</span>, permissions might need to be
1433 changed to allow this access. If the certificate and key will only be used
1434 for the SHAR, they can be put in the same folder with the
1435 <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> file and protected appropriately.</p>
1436 <p>Other web servers like IIS do not use the raw PEM format that Apache and
1437 Shibboleth can share, and therefore the components must generally use
1438 separate copies of the key and certificate if they are to be shared. Most
1439 other servers can export and/or import keys to and from PEM format or other
1440 formats that OpenSSL can convert.</p>
1441 <p>The SHAR is assigned a key and a certificate using shibboleth.ini's
1442 <span class="fixed">certFile</span>, <span class="fixed">keyFile</span> and
1443 <span class="fixed">keyPass</span> settings, described in <a href="#4.a.">
1444 section 4.a.</a> These files must currently be in PEM format. OpenSSL
1445 commands to generate a new keypair and a certificate request are shown here,
1446 assuming 2048 bit RSA keys are to be used:</p>
1448 <p><span class="fixed">$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out ssl.key 2048<br>
1449 $ openssl req -new -key ssl.key -out ssl.csr</span> </p>
1451 <p>The signed certificate file returned by the CA should be usable directly,
1452 or can be converted to PEM format using the <span class="fixed">openssl x509</span>
1454 <p>If the key is to be shared with Apache, the web server's child processes,
1455 often running as <span class="fixed">nobody</span>, must be able to read
1456 them while the server is running, which may require permission changes.</p>
1457 <p>This particularly applies when sharing the key and certificate used by
1458 mod_ssl, which are only readable by root by default. The password, if any,
1459 must be placed in the <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span> file, since
1460 the Apache module cannot prompt for it during initial startup as mod_ssl
1461 can. The issues surrounding how to securely obtain a key while running as
1462 <span class="fixed">nobody</span> may be addressed in a later release. Since
1463 the password will be stored in clear text in a frequently examined file, it
1464 is suggested to use a password not used elsewhere.</p>
1465 <p>Finally, the <span class="fixed">calist</span> command provides the SHAR
1466 with a set of CA roots to trust when validating AA server certificates. In
1467 all cases, the SHAR verifies that the certificate's Subject CN equals the
1468 AA's hostname, but the CA list restricts the accepted signers to those
1469 permitted by the SHAR. The parameter can be omitted to skip such validation,
1470 but this is not secure.</p>
1472 <h4><a name="4.d."></a>4.d. Protecting Web Pages</h4>
1474 <p>Protection of web pages is primarily achieved through "mapping"
1475 attributes provided by an AA to a localized vocabulary for authorization
1476 rules. This was formerly accomplished in Apache with the <span class="fixed">
1477 ShibMapAttribute</span> command, but this has been replaced with additional
1478 features in the AAP syntax, described in <a href="#4.e.">section 4.e.</a>
1479 This applies to both Apache and IIS.</p>
1480 <p><b><u>IIS</u></b></p>
1481 <p>The IIS RM module supports the mapping of attributes via AAP files, but
1482 it does not support rule-based policies and therefore cannot protect static
1483 content at this time. In addition, all of the configuration settings are
1484 managed globally or per-site and are pulled from the <span class="fixed">
1485 shibboleth.ini</span> file, so there are no additional commands to document
1488 <p><b><u>Apache</u></b></p>
1489 <p>The Apache RM module provided can interpret AAP settings to map
1490 attributes to HTTP request headers and to <span class="fixed">Require</span>
1491 rules, permitting protecting of both static and dynamic content. The
1492 commands described here can appear in content-specific configuration blocks
1493 or <span class="fixed">.htaccess</span> files. They determine what content
1494 is to be protected, session policies, and static access control rules.</p>
1495 <p>Any of the typical ways of protecting content may be used (.htaccess,
1496 Directory, Location, Files, etc.). There are two ways to trigger Shibboleth
1497 authentication: specifying an <span class="fixed">AuthType</span> of
1498 <span class="fixed">shibboleth</span> to use Shibboleth directly, or using
1499 <span class="fixed">ShibBasicHijack</span> to process existing .htaccess
1500 files using Shibboleth instead. Support for authorization consists of
1501 mod_auth-style require directives, as well as support for mod_auth group
1503 <p>A complete list of the directives and their values is below:</p>
1505 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">AuthType <string></span></dd>
1506 <dd class="value">Use <span class="fixed">shibboleth</span> for direct
1507 invocation, or <span class="fixed">Basic</span> plus the
1508 <span class="fixed">ShibBasicHijack</span> option described below.</dd>
1509 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">ShibSSLOnly <on/off></span></dd>
1510 <dd class="value">Controls whether Shibboleth will reject non-SSL
1511 requests for resources from clients. Defaults to <span class="fixed">off</span>.</dd>
1512 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">ShibBasicHijack <on/off></span></dd>
1513 <dd class="value">Controls whether Shibboleth should or should not
1514 ignore requests with <span class="fixed">AuthType Basic</span>. Defaults
1515 to <span class="fixed">off</span>.</dd>
1516 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">ShibExportAssertion <on/off></span></dd>
1517 <dd class="value">Controls whether the SAML attribute assertion provided
1518 by the AA is exported in a base64-encoded HTTP header,
1519 <span class="fixed">Shib-Attributes</span>. Defaults to
1520 <span class="fixed">off</span>. While this does require parsing the raw
1521 XML, it also permits an application to see attributes that may have been
1522 filtered by an AAP, or to forward the SAML assertion to a third party.</dd>
1523 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">ShibAuthLifetime <seconds></span></dd>
1524 <dd class="value">If set, sessions are always terminated after the
1525 specified number of seconds, resulting in a new redirect and request for
1526 authentication, just as if a new request without a session is received.
1527 Defaults to infinite.</dd>
1528 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">ShibAuthTimeout <seconds></span></dd>
1529 <dd class="value">If set, sessions are always terminated after the
1530 specified number of seconds of inactivity (defined as no requests
1531 received in that session), resulting in a new redirect and request for
1532 authentication, just as if a new request without a session is received.
1533 Defaults to infinite.</dd>
1534 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">AuthGroupFile <pathname></span></dd>
1535 <dd class="value">Same as mod_auth; collects values found in REMOTE_USER
1536 into a named group for access control. An attribute must be mapped to
1537 REMOTE_USER for this to work. Note that mod_auth will not support group
1538 files when mod_shibrm is loaded, since they share the same command.
1539 <p><a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#require">This is
1540 implemented</a> by placing a <span class="fixed">.htaccess</span> file
1541 that references a group file stored at <span class="fixed">/pathname</span>:</p>
1543 <p><span class="fixed">AuthGroupFile /pathname<br>
1544 require group workgroup</span></p>
1547 <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_auth.html#authgroupfile">
1548 AuthGroupFile</a> used by Shibboleth might resemble:<br>
1549 <span class="fixed">workgroup: joe@example.edu, jane@demo.edu, jim@sample.edu</span>
1551 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">Require <string></span></dd>
1552 <dd class="value">Enforce authorization using one of the following
1553 methods.<ul type="circle">
1554 <li><span class="fixed">valid-user</span><blockquote>
1555 <p>Any Shibboleth user from a trusted origin site is accepted,
1556 even if no actual attributes are received. This is a very
1557 minimal kind of policy, but is useful for testing or for
1558 deferring real policy to an application.</p>
1561 <p><span class="fixed">user</span></p>
1563 <p>A space-delimited list of values, such as from the
1564 <span class="fixed">
1565 urn:mace:dir:attribute-def:eduPersonPrincipalName</span>
1566 attribute. Actually, any attribute can be mapped to REMOTE_USER,
1567 even if this doesn't always make sense.</p>
1570 <li><span class="fixed">group</span><blockquote>
1571 <p>A space-delimited list of group names defined within
1572 <span class="fixed">AuthGroupFile</span> files, again provided
1573 that a mapping to <span class="fixed">REMOTE_USER</span> exists.</p>
1576 <li><span class="fixed"><alias></span><blockquote>
1577 <p>An arbitrary rule name that matches an Alias defined in an
1578 AAP file. The rule value is a space-delimited list of attribute
1579 values, whose format depends on the attribute in question (e.g.
1580 an affiliation rule might look like:</p>
1581 <p><span class="fixed">require affiliation staff@osu.edu
1582 faculty@mit.edu</span></p>
1586 <p>Additionally, for <span class="fixed">user</span> and
1587 <span class="fixed"><alias></span>-based rules, if a tilde character is
1588 placed immediately following <span class="fixed">user</span> or
1589 <span class="fixed"><alias></span>, the expressions that follow are
1590 treated as regular expressions. The syntax supported is generally based
1591 on the one defined by <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#regexs">
1592 XML Schema</a>. This specification borders on unreadable, but the syntax
1593 is generally Perl-like. Expressions should generally be "anchored" with
1594 the ^ and $ symbols to insure mid-string matches don't cause false
1596 <p>For example, the rule:<br>
1597 <span class="fixed">require affiliation ~ ^member@.+\.edu$<br>
1598 </span>would evaluate to allowing anyone with an <span class="fixed">
1599 affiliation</span> of <span class="fixed">member</span> from a .edu
1603 <h4><a name="4.e."></a>4.e. Defining Attributes and Acceptance Policies</h4>
1605 <p>Shibboleth allows a user and a site to release a varying set of
1606 attributes to a destination site, and does not impose restrictions on the
1607 kinds of attribute information provided by an AA. Target implementations
1608 must be prepared to examine the attributes they receive and filter them
1609 based on policies about what information to permit an origin site to assert
1610 about its users.</p>
1611 <p>Attribute acceptance is the process of defining acceptable attributes and
1612 filtering attribute values before passing them on to a resource manager,
1613 such as the <span class="fixed">mod_shibrm</span> module. Data blocked by
1614 AAP filters will not be passed to the CGI environment or used when enforcing
1615 <span class="fixed">.htaccess</span> rules. Note that the attribute
1616 assertion exported to the <span class="fixed">Shib-Attributes</span> header
1618 <p>The Shibboleth implementation supports Scoped and Simple attributes and
1619 filtering policies for different kinds of attributes, and is potentially
1620 extensible to more complex attributes in the future. An attribute is
1621 considered Scoped if the XML representation of its values contains a "Scope"
1622 attribute. As of 1.0.1, this is detected at runtime and requires no
1623 configuration work.</p>
1624 <p><b>An essential part of the Shibboleth trust fabric is ensuring that
1625 sites only assert attributes for domains for which they are considered
1626 authoritative by the target. Typically, this means that Brown University
1627 will be trusted to assert attributes only scoped to <span class="fixed">
1628 brown.edu</span>. Unless there are very specific circumstances requiring
1629 this restriction be removed, it is strongly encouraged that such policies be
1633 <p>Scoped attributes are a special kind of attribute whose values are a
1634 combination of a <span class="fixed">value</span> and a
1635 <span class="fixed">scope</span>, or <span class="fixed">context</span>
1636 for the value. An example is <span class="fixed">
1637 eduPersonScopedAffiliation</span>, which adds a scope to the defined set
1638 of <span class="fixed">eduPersonAffiliation</span> values, such as
1639 <span class="fixed">student</span>, <span class="fixed">member</span>,
1640 or <span class="fixed">faculty</span>. Scopes are expressed as DNS
1641 domains and subdomains.</p>
1642 <p>Any <span class="fixed">scoped</span> attribute can be scoped only to
1643 the origin site's permitted domains. These domains are listed in the
1644 site metadata that provides policy information to the system. Domains
1645 can be explicit or regular expressions, and can be changed by a target
1646 to meet its needs. Thus, attribute acceptance processing for
1647 <span class="fixed">scoped</span> attributes is based on site metadata,
1648 in addition to the mechanism described below for <span class="fixed">
1649 simple</span> attributes.</p>
1653 <p>Simple attributes are attributes whose value is expressed in XML as a
1654 Text node; that is, the value is just a string. Multiple values are
1655 permitted. <span class="fixed">eduPersonEntitlement</span>, in which the
1656 values are URIs, is one example of a simple attribute.</p>
1657 <p>Both Simple and Scoped attribute acceptance is controlled with an
1658 external policy file written in XML. The schema for the file is
1659 described by the <span class="fixed">shibboleth.xsd</span> schema, and
1660 an example file is included, <span class="fixed">AAP.xml</span>. It is
1661 mandatory to supply such a file, because attributes are recognized based
1662 on their presence in this file, and not by separate configuration
1663 processes. Only by listing an attribute in the file will it be accepted
1664 and processed by the RM.</p>
1665 <p>The policy is a default-deny algorithm that requires permissible
1666 attributes and values be listed explicitly. That is, an empty file
1667 permits nothing. Each attribute to be supported must be listed in the
1668 file by name in an <span class="fixed"><AttributeRule></span>. Each such
1669 rule is a collection of <span class="fixed"><SiteRule></span> elements
1670 along with an optional <span class="fixed"><AnySite></span> default
1671 rule. In turn each site rule is a set of <span class="fixed"><Value></span>
1672 rules that specify matches to permit, either literal or regular
1673 expressions, or a wildcarded <span class="fixed"><AnyValue></span>
1674 default rule, which is equivalent to a single regular expression rule
1675 allowing anything.</p>
1677 <p>A syntax summary follows:</p>
1679 <p><span class="fixed"><AttributeAcceptancePolicy</span></p>
1681 <p>The top level element in the file.</p>
1683 <p><span class="fixed"><AttributeRule<br>
1684 Name="urn:mace:dir:attribute-def:eduPersonScopedAffiliation"<br>
1685 Header="Shib-EP-Affiliation" Alias="affiliation"></span></p>
1687 <p>Specifies a rule for an attribute, named by its URI. The
1688 following XML attributes can be supplied:</p>
1689 <table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5">
1691 <td><span class="fixed">Name</span></td>
1692 <td>The name of the Shibboleth attribute, usually a URI.
1693 This is the only required XML attribute.</td>
1696 <td><span class="fixed">Namespace</span></td>
1697 <td>If the attribute's name includes a SAML namespace,
1698 supply it here. Normally this is unused.</td>
1701 <td><span class="fixed">Header</span></td>
1702 <td>The HTTP request header to map the attribute's values
1706 <td><span class="fixed">Alias</span></td>
1707 <td>A short name for the attribute, determines the name of
1708 the Apache <span class="fixed">Requires</span> rule.</td>
1712 <p><span class="fixed"><AnySite></span></p>
1714 <p>Specifies a rule that always applies to the attribute, regardless
1715 of the asserting AA.</p>
1717 <p><span class="fixed"><SiteRule Name="host.domain.com"></span></p>
1719 <p>A rule that applies to the origin site AA corresponding to the
1722 <p><span class="fixed"><AnyValue></span></p>
1724 <p>Specifies a rule that always applies to the attribute and site,
1725 regardless of the value(s).</p>
1727 <p><span class="fixed"><Value Type="type"></span></p>
1729 <p>Specifies a value to permit, either directly using
1730 <span class="fixed">type</span> <span class="fixed">literal</span>,
1731 or using a set of matching expressions as <span class="fixed">type</span>
1732 <span class="fixed">regexp</span>. <span class="fixed">literal</span>
1733 is the default if <span class="fixed">Type</span> is not specified.</p>
1736 <p>The regular expression syntax is a subset of the usual Perl and Unix
1737 syntaxes that is described in the XML Schema specification by the W3C. Most
1738 typical expressions should work. Be sure to anchor them using
1739 <span class="fixed">^</span> and <span class="fixed">$</span> to avoid
1740 unintentional matches midstring.</p>
1742 <h4><a name="4.f."></a>4.f. Using Attributes in Applications</h4>
1744 <p>Apart from the simple RM functionality provided, attribute information
1745 may be made available directly to applications via the standard practice of
1746 creating custom HTTP request headers before passing control to the
1747 application. Applications should make no assumption about the presence of
1748 specific attributes for their use unless they have intimate knowledge of the
1749 attribute release policies in place.</p>
1750 <p>The AAP metadata controls this interface, and maps a Shibboleth attribute
1751 to a header name, such as <span class="fixed">Shib-EP-Affiliation</span>.
1752 Using that example, any values of the mapped attribute will be placed in
1753 that header, delimited by semicolons. An application that uses a CGI-like
1754 syntax to access the header will find the values in the <span class="fixed">
1755 HTTP_SHIB_EP_AFFILIATION</span> variable. Any attribute can be placed in any
1756 header, to drive legacy applications that expect information in a particular
1758 <p>The <span class="fixed">REMOTE_USER</span> variable is a special case
1759 that is generally populated automatically by the web server based on an
1760 internal piece of data that represents the current <span class="fixed">
1761 username</span>. Unlike many authentication modules, Shibboleth does not
1762 guarantee that <span class="fixed">REMOTE_USER</span> will have any value,
1763 because users may remain anonymous in many cases. If it does have a value,
1764 it is set solely because of an AAP file that maps an attribute to that
1765 header name. For many purposes, the <span class="fixed">
1766 urn:mace:dir:attribute-def:eduPersonPrincipalName</span> attribute should be
1767 mapped to <span class="fixed">REMOTE_USER</span>. Even so, EPPN may not be
1768 provided by the AA, and <span class="fixed">REMOTE_USER</span> might still
1770 <p>The <span class="fixed">Shib-Origin-Site</span> variable will contain the
1771 unique name/identifier of the origin site of the user. Some applications may
1772 use this to lookup additional policy or application data. It normally takes
1773 the form of a URI but could be any string in some deployments.</p>
1774 <p>Finally, configuration may instruct the web server to place the entire
1775 XML message containing the SAML attribute information from the AA into a
1776 base64-encoded header called <span class="fixed">Shib-Attributes</span>.
1777 This is a raw interface that provides an application with the entire AA
1778 response, and is not a filtered view based on any attribute acceptance rules
1779 or even based on what attributes are recognized by the target. What was sent
1780 is what you see.</p>
1782 <h4><a name="4.g."></a>4.g. <span class="fixed">siterefresh</span></h4>
1784 <p>Shibboleth provides a simple tool called <span class="fixed">siterefresh</span>
1785 in the <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/bin</span> folder of the
1786 distribution to maintain metadata files referenced by <span class="fixed">
1787 shibboleth.ini</span>. It will return 0 on success and a negative number on
1788 failure and log errors to <span class="fixed">stderr</span>. If the data in
1789 the new metadata file is bad or the signature is invalid, the existing copy
1790 is kept. The SHAR and SHIRE stat all metadata files each time the data is
1791 used, allowing them to detect and utilize updates in real-time operation.</p>
1792 <p><span class="fixed">siterefresh</span> takes the following command-line
1795 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">--url <URL></span> </dd>
1796 <dd class="value">Specifies the <span class="fixed">URL</span> of the
1797 remote metadata file with which to update the local file.</dd>
1798 <dd class="attribute"><span class="fixed">--out <pathname></span> </dd>
1799 <dd class="value">Specifies the local file to which to write the new
1801 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">--cert <pathname></span>
1803 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the location of a certificate stored in
1804 <span class="fixed">PEM</span> format used to validate the signature of
1805 the metadata file. Since much of Shibboleth's security flows from
1806 metadata files, this option is highly recommended, and the certificate
1807 used should be verified independently.</dd>
1808 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">--schema <pathname></span>
1810 <dd class="valueopt">Optionally defines a base path for schemas to use
1811 when validating the file. Defaults to <span class="fixed">
1812 /opt/shibboleth/etc/shibboleth/</span>.</dd>
1814 <p>A complete command issued to <span class="fixed">siterefresh</span> might
1817 <p><span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/bin/siterefresh --out sites.xml
1818 --cert internet2.pem \<br>
1819 --url http://wayf.internet2.edu/InQueue/sites.xml </span></p>
1821 <p>It is recommended that similar commands be added to a <span class="fixed">
1822 crontab</span> to keep the site and trust files refreshed. AAP files tend to
1823 be site-specific, but could be maintained and distributed centrally. If the
1824 command is invoked in a script that writes the file to a new location and
1825 compares it with the old contents before overwriting the original, the
1826 command could be run very often without impacting target operations,
1827 providing a high degree of currency in case sites become compromised.</p>
1829 <h4><a name="4.h."></a>4.h. MySQL Session Cache</h4>
1831 <p>Shibboleth includes a useful plugin that extends the default memory cache
1832 for storing session data in the SHAR with a backing cache using an embedded
1833 MySQL database. In most distributions, it is enabled by default. The plugin
1834 can be found in the <span class="fixed">/opt/shibboleth/libexec</span>
1835 folder, and is loaded as an extension library using the <span class="fixed">
1836 [extensions:saml]</span> section of <span class="fixed">shibboleth.ini</span>.
1837 The following configuration options are available:</p>
1839 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed">mysql-cache-timeout =
1840 <seconds> (in [shar] section)</span></dd>
1841 <dd class="valueopt">Specifies the duration in <span class="fixed">
1842 seconds</span> that must elapse between user accesses before that user's
1843 session is purged from the persistent cache. Defaults to
1844 <span class="fixed">28800</span> seconds, or 8 hours. This should
1845 generally be longer than the associated server's settings for session
1846 lifetime and timeout, and the memory cache's timeout.</dd>
1847 <dd class="attributeopt"><span class="fixed"><MySQL Arguments>
1848 (one per line in [mysql] section)</span></dd>
1849 <dd class="valueopt">To pass arguments to the MySQL engine, create
1850 argument lines in the <span class="fixed">[mysql]</span> section in the
1852 <blockquote class="fixed">
1853 <p>arg1=<argument><br>
1854 arg2=<argument><br>
1857 <p>Important arguments you'll find by default include: </p>
1858 <blockquote class="fixed">
1859 <p>arg1 = --language=/opt/shibboleth/share/english<br>
1860 arg2 = --datadir=/opt/shibboleth/data</p>
1862 <p>which set the message file path and the location of the cache's
1863 database files respectively. Make sure the data directory exists before
1864 starting the SHAR if you change this path.</dd>
1870 <h3><a name="5."></a>5. Troubleshooting</h3>
1871 <p>This section provides basic information about testing Shibboleth targets.
1872 This information is not intended to be comprehensive, but instead rudimentary
1873 guidelines for basic configuration tests and problems. For more detailed
1874 information or answers to specific problems not addressed in this section,
1875 please mail <a href="mailto:mace-shib-users@internet2.edu">
1876 mace-shib-users@internet2.edu</a> with a thorough description of errors and
1877 configurations used.</p>
1878 <h4><a name="5.a."></a>5.a. Basic Testing</h4>
1880 <p>The target may be tested by generating a folder with very basic access
1881 controls on it, and accessing it using a web browser. Place a simple webpage
1882 such as <span class="fixed">index.html</span> in <span class="fixed">
1883 /secure/</span>. Then, add the following lines to <span class="fixed">
1884 httpd.conf</span>, which should be removed when testing is over:</p>
1886 <p><span class="fixed"># Configure a test directory<br>
1887 <Location /secure><br>
1888 AuthType shibboleth<br>
1889 require valid-user<br>
1891 # Per-directory SHIRE Configuration<br>
1892 #ShibBasicHijack On<br>
1893 #ShibSSLOnly On<br>
1894 #ShibAuthLifetime 60<br>
1895 #ShibAuthTimeout 600<br>
1897 # RM Configuration<br>
1898 #AuthGroupFile /foo<br>
1899 #ShibExportAssertion On<br>
1900 </Location><br>
1903 <p><b>For information regarding specific error messages that may be
1904 generated if the target does not work successfully, please refer to section
1905 <a href="#5.b.">5.b.</a>, or write
1906 <a href="mailto:mace-shib-users@internet2.edu">mace-shib-users@internet2.edu</a>.</b></p>
1908 <h4><a name="5.b."></a>5.b. Common Problems</h4>
1910 <p>A knowledge base is being developed in the
1911 <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~wassa/shib.faq/shibboleth-faq.%20%20%20%20%20%20html">
1912 Shibboleth Deployer's FAQ</a>. Please mail
1913 <a href="mailto:mace-shib-users@internet2.edu">mace-shib-users@
1914 internet2.edu</a> with any additional questions or problems encountered that
1915 are not answered by this basic guide.</p>