T-Check in Technologies for Interoperability: Web Services and Security--Single Sign-On

A single sign-on (SSO) solution is intended to provide a single authentication point for a set of Web services. The SSO solution for-wards the necessary authentication information to the Web services, which in turn authenticate the end user to legacy systems that implement the Web services' functionality. This technical note presents the results of applying the T-Check approach in an initial investigation of two Web services standards, WS-Security and SAML, to create an SSO solution that works inside a single organization. This approach involves (1) formulating hypotheses about the technology and (2) examining these hypotheses against specific criteria through hands-on experimentation. The outcome of this two-stage approach is that the hypotheses are either fully or partially sustained or refuted. In this report, four hypotheses-based on claims found in experience reports and on vendor Web sites-are examined: (1) it is possible to implement SSO for the two Web services using SAML and WS-Security; (2) it is fairly easy to implement a basic SSO solution; (3) the SSO solution will not have a major impact on the runtime behavior of the system; and (4) the SSO solution can provide the required access control. The first three hypotheses were sustained; it was not necessary to implement the fourth one to list options for adding access control.

PDF [914 KB]

Authors

Lutz Wrage

Soumya Simanta

Grace Lewis

Saul Jaspan

This report is related to the following area(s) of work:

Service-Oriented Architecture
System of Systems

Technical Note
CMU/SEI-2008-TN-026
January 2008

Cite This Report

SEI:

Wrage, Lutz; Simanta, Soumya; Lewis, Grace; & Jaspan, Saul. T-Check in Technologies for Interoperability: Web Services and Security--Single Sign-On (CMU/SEI-2008-TN-026). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2008. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/08tn026.cfm

IEEE:

L. Wrage, S. Simanta, G. Lewis, and S. Jaspan, "T-Check in Technologies for Interoperability: Web Services and Security--Single Sign-On," Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Technical Note CMU/SEI-2008-TN-026, 2008. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/08tn026.cfm

APA:

Wrage, L., Simanta, S., Lewis, G., & Jaspan, S. (2008). T-Check in Technologies for Interoperability: Web Services and Security--Single Sign-On (CMU/SEI-2008-TN-026). Retrieved June 18, 2013, from the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University website: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/08tn026.cfm

CHI:

Wrage, Lutz, Soumya Simanta, Grace Lewis, and Saul Jaspan. T-Check in Technologies for Interoperability: Web Services and Security--Single Sign-On (CMU/SEI-2008-TN-026). Pittsburgh, PA: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2008. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/08tn026.cfm

MLA:

Wrage, L., Simanta, S., Lewis, G., & Jaspan, S. 2008. T-Check in Technologies for Interoperability: Web Services and Security--Single Sign-On (Technical Report CMU/SEI-2008-TN-026). Pittsburgh: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/08tn026.cfm

Find Us Here

Find us on Youtube  Find us on LinkedIn  Find us on twitter  Find us on Facebook

Share This Page

Share on Facebook  Send to your Twitter page  Save to del.ico.us  Save to LinkedIn  Digg this  Stumble this page.  Add to Technorati favorites  Save this page on your Google Home Page 

For more information

Contact Us

info@sei.cmu.edu

412-268-5800

Help us improve

Visitor feedback helps us continually improve our site.

Please tell us what you
think with this short
(< 5 minute) survey.