Configuring Ping Federate and Spring SAML to authenticate application

Question

I installed PingFederate on an AWS EC2 running Windows_Server-2008-R2_SP1-English-64Bit-Base-2014.04.09. I have a Java application that is using Spring Security for authentication.

I have read about how with PingFederate, I can set up an Identity Provider(IdP) and a Service Provider(SP). I have gathered that the IdP would be the Application User providing login credentials(the Identity) and passing this to the SP which has the Target Application apart of the SP in this diagram on this page here:

http://documentation.pingidentity.com/display/PF66/Service+Providers+and+Identity+Providers

This image also shows the Federated Identity Software on both sides of the IdP and the SP.

I have created an IdP and SP with my local PingFederate server just to see what the configuration options are and I am confused on which parts of this I actually need to be able to have a SSO for my Spring Security application.

My questions are:

1. Do I need an IdP and SP to implement that I am trying to do.

2. Right now our usernames and passwords are stored in a SQL Server, would I leverage this for PingFederate to use to authenticate the users?

3. Should I even be using Spring Security SAML for this or would another route be more appropriate?

Thanks for any help, I have reached out to PingFederate but my Regional Solutions Architect happens to be out until Friday.

I also apologize if I am completely off in my thinking, I am trying to wrap my mind around what is needed.

Answer 1

Presuming your goal is to establish federation between Ping and your application (in order to e.g. externalize authentication or enable single sign-on), your thinking is correct.

The Ping Federate serves as an Identity Provider (IDP) and you can configure it to connect to your SQL server, so that it can authenticate your existing users from there. IDP communicates with other applications which are called Service Providers (SP).

In order to connect to Ping your application therefore needs to be able to act as a SAML 2.0 Service Provider and using Spring SAML is a very good way to enable it to do so.

The typical flow of data between SP and IDP for single sign-on is similar to:

1. User accesses SP application which requires authentication
2. SP creates an AuthenticationRequest and sends it to IDP (using redirect in user's browser)
3. IDP processes the request and authenticates the user
4. IDP responds back to SP with an AuthenticationResponse message
5. SP processes the response and creates a session for the user based on the included data

Answer 2

There is an assumption being made that you need SAML between your Spring app and PingFederate. That is not true depending on how it is deployed and if you (see Andy K follow-up questions). You should check out the OpenToken Integration Kit for Java or perhaps the ReferenceID Int Kit from Ping as a possible solution. Much simpler to integrate than trying to hack together another SAML solution that may not be needed. However, I would recommend talking to your RSA who can give you the best approach for your scenario.