Earlier in this section, under FIM and SSO, you learned about IdPs and SPs. To access a service, the user gets validated from the IdP, which in-turn has a trusted relationship with the SP. SAML is one of the mechanisms to establish a trusted relationship between an IdP and an SP. SAML uses extensible markup language (XML) to standardize communication between an IdP and an SP. SAML enables SSO, so users can use a single credential to access multiple applications.
A SAML assertion is an XML document that the IdP sends to the SP with user authorization. The following diagram illustrates the flow of the SAML assertion:
User authentication using SAML
As mentioned in the preceding diagram, the following steps are taken to implement user authentication using SAML:
- A user sends a request to access the service—for example, the Salesforce CRM application—as a service provider.
- The service provider (a CRM application) sends a SAML request...