This version is still in development and is not considered stable yet. For the latest stable version, please use Spring Security 6.3.4!

Saml 2.0 Metadata

Spring Security can parse asserting party metadata to produce an AssertingPartyMetadata instance as well as publish relying party metadata from a RelyingPartyRegistration instance.

Parsing <saml2:IDPSSODescriptor> metadata

You can parse an asserting party’s metadata using RelyingPartyRegistrations.

When using the OpenSAML vendor support, the resulting AssertingPartyMetadata will be of type OpenSamlAssertingPartyDetails. This means you’ll be able to do get the underlying OpenSAML XMLObject by doing the following:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

OpenSamlAssertingPartyDetails details = (OpenSamlAssertingPartyDetails)
        registration.getAssertingPartyMetadata();
EntityDescriptor openSamlEntityDescriptor = details.getEntityDescriptor();
val details: OpenSamlAssertingPartyDetails =
        registration.getAssertingPartyMetadata() as OpenSamlAssertingPartyDetails
val openSamlEntityDescriptor: EntityDescriptor = details.getEntityDescriptor()

Using AssertingPartyMetadataRepository

You can also be more targeted than RelyingPartyRegistrations by using AssertingPartyMetadataRepository, an interface that allows for only retrieving the asserting party metadata.

This allows three valuable features:

  • Implementations can refresh asserting party metadata in an expiry-aware fashion

  • Implementations of RelyingPartyRegistrationRepository can more easily articulate a relationship between a relying party and its one or many corresponding asserting parties

  • Implementations can verify metadata signatures

For example, OpenSaml4AssertingPartyMetadataRepository uses OpenSAML’s MetadataResolver, and API whose implementations regularly refresh the underlying metadata in an expiry-aware fashion.

This means that you can now create a refreshable RelyingPartyRegistrationRepository in just a few lines of code:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Component
public class RefreshableRelyingPartyRegistrationRepository
        implements IterableRelyingPartyRegistrationRepository {

	private final AssertingPartyMetadataRepository metadata =
            OpenSamlAssertingPartyMetadataRepository
                .fromTrustedMetadataLocation("https://idp.example.org/metadata").build();

	@Override
    public RelyingPartyRegistration findByRegistrationId(String registrationId) {
		AssertingPartyMetadata metadata = this.metadata.findByEntityId(registrationId);
        if (metadata == null) {
            return null;
        }
		return applyRelyingParty(metadata);
    }

	@Override
    public Iterator<RelyingPartyRegistration> iterator() {
		return StreamSupport.stream(this.metadata.spliterator(), false)
            .map(this::applyRelyingParty).iterator();
    }

	private RelyingPartyRegistration applyRelyingParty(AssertingPartyMetadata metadata) {
		return RelyingPartyRegistration.withAssertingPartyMetadata(metadata)
            // apply any relying party configuration
            .build();
	}

}
@Component
class RefreshableRelyingPartyRegistrationRepository : IterableRelyingPartyRegistrationRepository {

    private val metadata: AssertingPartyMetadataRepository =
        OpenSamlAssertingPartyMetadataRepository.fromTrustedMetadataLocation(
            "https://idp.example.org/metadata").build()

    fun findByRegistrationId(registrationId:String?): RelyingPartyRegistration {
        val metadata = this.metadata.findByEntityId(registrationId)
        if (metadata == null) {
            return null
        }
        return applyRelyingParty(metadata)
    }

    fun iterator(): Iterator<RelyingPartyRegistration> {
        return StreamSupport.stream(this.metadata.spliterator(), false)
            .map(this::applyRelyingParty).iterator()
    }

    private fun applyRelyingParty(metadata: AssertingPartyMetadata): RelyingPartyRegistration {
        val details: AssertingPartyMetadata = metadata as AssertingPartyMetadata
        return RelyingPartyRegistration.withAssertingPartyMetadata(details)
            // apply any relying party configuration
            .build()
    }
 }
OpenSaml4AssertingPartyMetadataRepository also ships with a constructor so you can provide a custom MetadataResolver. Since the underlying MetadataResolver is doing the expirying and refreshing, if you use the constructor directly, you will only get these features by providing an implementation that does so.

Verifying Metadata Signatures

You can also verify metadata signatures using OpenSaml4AssertingPartyMetadataRepository by providing the appropriate set of Saml2X509Credentials as follows:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

OpenSamlAssertingPartyMetadataRepository.withMetadataLocation("https://idp.example.org/metadata")
    .verificationCredentials((c) -> c.add(myVerificationCredential))
    .build();
OpenSamlAssertingPartyMetadataRepository.withMetadataLocation("https://idp.example.org/metadata")
    .verificationCredentials({ c : Collection<Saml2X509Credential> ->
        c.add(myVerificationCredential) })
    .build()
If no credentials are provided, the component will not perform signature validation.

Producing <saml2:SPSSODescriptor> Metadata

You can publish a metadata endpoint using the saml2Metadata DSL method, as you’ll see below:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

http
    // ...
    .saml2Login(withDefaults())
    .saml2Metadata(withDefaults());
http {
    //...
    saml2Login { }
    saml2Metadata { }
}

You can use this metadata endpoint to register your relying party with your asserting party. This is often as simple as finding the correct form field to supply the metadata endpoint.

By default, the metadata endpoint is /saml2/metadata, though it also responds to /saml2/metadata/{registrationId} and /saml2/service-provider-metadata/{registrationId}.

You can change this by calling the metadataUrl method in the DSL:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

.saml2Metadata((saml2) -> saml2.metadataUrl("/saml/metadata"))
saml2Metadata {
	metadataUrl = "/saml/metadata"
}

Changing the Way a RelyingPartyRegistration Is Looked Up

If you have a different strategy for identifying which RelyingPartyRegistration to use, you can configure your own Saml2MetadataResponseResolver like the one below:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Bean
Saml2MetadataResponseResolver metadataResponseResolver(RelyingPartyRegistrationRepository registrations) {
	RequestMatcherMetadataResponseResolver metadata = new RequestMatcherMetadataResponseResolver(
			(id) -> registrations.findByRegistrationId("relying-party"));
	metadata.setMetadataFilename("metadata.xml");
	return metadata;
}
@Bean
fun metadataResponseResolver(val registrations: RelyingPartyRegistrationRepository): Saml2MetadataResponseResolver {
    val metadata = new RequestMatcherMetadataResponseResolver(
			id: String -> registrations.findByRegistrationId("relying-party"))
	metadata.setMetadataFilename("metadata.xml")
	return metadata
}