OpenSSO or ESOE for .NET?

Question

Does something like OpenSSO (https://opensso.dev.java.net/) or ESOE (http://esoeproject.org/) exist for the .NET platform?

Answer 1

I found a Danish open source .NET library (OIOSAML) implementing the SAML 2.0 standard. It was developed as a project for the danish government as their common SSO solution.

Download: http://www.softwareborsen.dk/projekter/softwarecenter/brugerstyring/oiosaml.net/

Update: Now you also have the option of using the Windows Identity Foundation which my colleagues and I have used successfully in a project for Jubii.dk. In fact i would recommend WIF over OIOSAML.

Answer 2

Do you really need the SSO server itself to be running on .net? OpenSSO runs as a Java web app, but it can authenticate users against AD, do Windows Desktop SSO (aka SPNEGO, aka Kerberos) to authenticate users from their Windows login, with no additional username/password step, interoperate with ADFS via WS-Federation and protect web apps running on IIS via a policy agent.

So, you can hook up all the Microsofty stuff, plus do SAML 2.0 single sign-on to external partners.

Answer 3

Keep in mind that if you're using .Net, you're probably in a Microsoft Shop using the "Microsoft Stack". And that means using Active Directory for authentication pretty much across the board, including any Single Sign On systems.

If you need to also talk to entities outside your own domain (other businesses), you would normally set up a trust relationship in your AD domain with the partner system (either directly with their AD system or via LDAP) so that signing in there grants the needed permissions locally, and vice versa.

If you need to support software systems hosted locally, but provided by third parties, you would choose systems that support AD or LDAP for authentication.