SSO (Single Sign On)

• SSO is a session and user authentication service
• single sign-on - a single action of signing in provides access to multiple software systems.
• single sign-off - a single action of signing out terminates access to multiple software systems.
• SSO must internally store the credentials used for initial authentication and translate them to the credentials required for the different mechanisms.
• can cause a potential damage to security since an attacker who cracked a password has acces to all the SPs once signed in
• examples of protocols used - Kerberos, SAML

SAML workflow

• Three main roles i.e.
• User
• Identity Provider (Middle layer between user and SP)
• Service Provider (SP) (ex: Facebook, Twitter etc.)
• SAML request is triggered by SP, SAML response is sent by IdP

Kerberos workflow

Refer SAML example

http://docs.spring.io/spring-security-saml/docs/current/reference/html/chapter-quick-start.html