djangosaml2 0.2.3

pysaml2 integration in Django

.. contents::

===========
djangosaml2
===========

djangosaml2 is a Django application that integrates the PySAML2 library
into your project. This mean that you can protect your Django based project
with a service provider based on PySAML. This way it will talk SAML2 with
your Identity Provider allowing you to use this authentication mechanism.
This document will guide you through a few simple steps to accomplish
such goal.


Installation
============

PySAML2 uses xmlsec1_ binary to sign SAML assertions so you need to install
it either through your operating system package or by compiling the source
code. It doesn't matter where the final executable is installed because
you will need to set the full path to it in the configuration stage.

.. _xmlsec1: http://www.aleksey.com/xmlsec/

Now you can install the djangosaml2 package using easy_install or pip. This
will also install PySAML2 and its dependencies automatically.


Configuration
=============

There are three things you need to setup to make djangosaml2 works in your
Django project:

1. **settings.py** as you may already know, it is the main Django
configuration file.
2. **urls.py** is the file where you will include djangosaml2 urls.
3. **pysaml2** specific files such as a attribute map directory and a
certificate.


Changes in the settings.py file
-------------------------------
The first thing you need to do is add ``djangosaml2`` to the list of
installed apps::

INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.sites',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.admin',
'djangosaml2', # new application
)

Actually this is not really required since djangosaml2 does not include
any data model. The only reason we include it is to be able to run
djangosaml2 test suite from our project, something you should always
do to make sure it is compatible with your Django version and environment.

.. note::

When you finish the configuation you can run the djangosaml2 test suite
as you run any other Django application test suite. Just type
``python manage.py test djangosaml2``

Finally we have to tell Django what is the new login url we want to use::

LOGIN_URL = '/saml2/login/'
SESSION_EXPIRE_AT_BROWSER_CLOSE = True

Here we are telling Django that any view that requires an authenticated
user should redirect the user browser to that url if the user has not
been authenticated before. We are also telling that when the user closes
his browser, the session should be terminated. This is useful in SAML2
federations where the logout protocol is not always available.

.. note::

The login url starts with ``/saml2/`` as an example but you can change that
if you want. Check the section about changes in the ``urls.py``
file for more information.

If you want to allow several authentication mechanisms in your project
you should set the LOGIN_URL option to another view and put a link in such
view to the ``/saml2/login/`` view.


Changes in the urls.py file
---------------------------

The next thing you need to do is to include ``djangosaml2.urls`` module to your
main ``urls.py`` module::

urlpatterns = patterns(
'',
# lots of url definitions here

(r'^saml2/', include('djangosaml2.urls')),

# more url definitions
)

As you can see we are including ``djangosaml2.urls`` under the *saml2*
prefix. Feel free to use your own prefix but be consistent with what
you have put in the ``settings.py`` file in the LOGIN_URL parameter.


PySAML2 specific files and configuration
----------------------------------------
Once you have finished configuring your Django project you have to
start configuring PySAML. If you use just that library you have to
put your configuration options in a file and initialize PySAML2 with
the path to that file.

In djangosaml2 you just put the same information in the Django
settings.py file under the SAML_CONFIG option.

We will see a typical configuration for protecting a Django project::

from os import path
import saml2
BASEDIR = path.dirname(path.abspath(__file__))
SAML_CONFIG = {
# full path to the xmlsec1 binary programm
'xmlsec_binary': '/usr/bin/xmlsec1',

# your entity id, usually your subdomain plus the url to the metadata view
'entityid': 'http://localhost:8000/saml2/metadata/',

# directory with attribute mapping
'attribute_map_dir': path.join(BASEDIR, 'attribute-maps'),

# this block states what services we provide
'service': {
# we are just a lonely SP
'sp' : {
'name': 'Federated Django sample SP',
'endpoints': {
# url and binding to the assetion consumer service view
# do not change the binding or service name
'assertion_consumer_service': [
('http://localhost:8000/saml2/acs/',
saml2.BINDING_HTTP_POST),
],
# url and binding to the single logout service view
# do not change the binding or service name
'single_logout_service': [
('http://localhost:8000/saml2/ls/',
saml2.BINDING_HTTP_REDIRECT),
],
},

# attributes that this project need to identify a user
'required_attributes': ['uid'],

# attributes that may be useful to have but not required
'optional_attributes': ['eduPersonAffiliation'],

# in this section the list of IdPs we talk to are defined
'idp': {
# we do not need a WAYF service since there is
# only an IdP defined here. This IdP should be
# present in our metadata

# the keys of this dictionary are entity ids
'https://localhost/simplesaml/saml2/idp/metadata.php': {
'single_sign_on_service': {
saml2.BINDING_HTTP_REDIRECT: 'https://localhost/simplesaml/saml2/idp/SSOService.php',
},
'single_logout_service': {
saml2.BINDING_HTTP_REDIRECT: 'https://localhost/simplesaml/saml2/idp/SingleLogoutService.php',
},
},
},
},
},

# where the remote metadata is stored
'metadata': {
'local': [path.join(BASEDIR, 'remote_metadata.xml')],
},

# set to 1 to output debugging information
'debug': 1,

# certificate
'key_file': path.join(BASEDIR, 'mycert.key'), # private part
'cert_file': path.join(BASEDIR, 'mycert.pem'), # public part

# own metadata settings
'contact_person': [
{'given_name': 'Lorenzo',
'sur_name': 'Gil',
'company': 'Yaco Sistemas',
'email_address': '[e-mail]',
'contact_type': 'technical'},
{'given_name': 'Angel',
'sur_name': 'Fernandez',
'company': 'Yaco Sistemas',
'email_address': '[e-mail]',
'contact_type': 'administrative'},
],
# you can set multilanguage information here
'organization': {
'name': [('Yaco Sistemas', 'es'), ('Yaco Systems', 'en')],
'display_name': [('Yaco', 'es'), ('Yaco', 'en')],
'url': [('http://www.yaco.es', 'es'), ('http://www.yaco.com', 'en')],
},
'valid_for': 24, # how long is our metadata valid
}

.. note::

Please check the `PySAML2 documentation`_ for more information about
these and other configuration options.

.. _`PySAML2 documentation`: http://packages.python.org/pysaml2/

There are several external files and directories you have to create according
to this configuration.

The xmlsec1 binary was mentioned in the installation section. Here, in the
configuration part you just need to put the full path to xmlsec1 so PySAML2
can call it as it needs.

The ``attribute_map_dir`` points to a directory with attribute mappings that
are used to translate user attribute names from several standards. It's usually
safe to just copy the default PySAML2 attribute maps that you can find in the
``tests/attributemaps`` directory of the source distribution.

The ``metadata`` option is a dictionary where you can define several types of
metadata for remote entities. Usually the easiest type is the ``local`` where
you just put the name of a local XML file with the contents of the remote
entities metadata. This XML file should be in the SAML2 metadata format.

The ``key_file`` and ``cert_file`` options references the two parts of a
standard x509 certificate. You need it to sign your metadata an to encrypt
and decrypt the SAML2 assertions.

.. note::

Check your openssl documentation to generate a test certificate but don't
forget to order a real one when you go into production.


User attributes
---------------

In the SAML 2.0 authentication process the Identity Provider (IdP) will
send a security assertion to the Service Provider (SP) upon a succesfull
authentication. This assertion contains attributes about the user that
was authenticated. It depends on the IdP configuration what exact
attributes are sent to each SP it can talk to.

When such assertion is received on the Django side it is used to find
a Django user and create a session for it. You can configure djangosaml2
to create such user if it is not already in the Django database or maybe
you don't want to allow users that are not in your database already. For
this purpose there is another option you can set in the settings.py file::

SAML_CREATE_UNKNOWN_USER = True

This setting is True by default.

The other thing you will probably want to configure is the mapping of
SAML2 user attributes to Django user attributes. By default only the
User.username attribute is mapped but you can add more attributes or
change that one. In order to do so you need to change the
SAML_ATTRIBUTE_MAPPING option in your settings.py::

SAML_ATTRIBUTE_MAPPING = {
'uid': 'username',
'mail': 'email',
'cn': 'first_name',
'sn': 'last_name',
}

where the keys of this dictionary are SAML user attributes and the values
are Django User attributes.


IdP setup
=========
Congratulations, you have finished configuring the SP side of the federation.
Now you need to send the entity id and the metadata of this new SP to the
IdP administrators so they can add it to their list of trusted services.

You can get this information starting your Django development server and
going to the http://localhost:8000/saml2/metadata url. If you have included
the djangosaml2 urls under a different url prefix you need to correct this
url.


Testing
=======

One way to check if everything is working as expected is to enable the
following url:

urlpatterns = patterns(
'',
# lots of url definitions here

(r'^saml2/', include('djangosaml2.urls')),
(r'^test/', 'djangosaml2.views.echo_attributes'),

# more url definitions
)


Now if you go to the /test/ url you will see your SAML attributes and also
a link to do a global logout.


FAQ
===

**Why can't SAML be implemented as an Django Authentication Backend?**

well SAML authentication is not that simple as a set of credentials you can
put on a login form and get a response back. Actually the user password is
not given to the service provider at all. This is by design. You have to
delegate the task of authentication to the IdP and then get an asynchronous
response from it.

Given said that, djangosaml2 does use a Django Authentication Backend to
transform the SAML assertion about the user into a Django user object.

**Why not put everything in a Django middleware class and make our lifes
easier?**

Yes, that was an option I did evaluate but at the end the current design
won. In my opinion putting this logic into a middleware has the advantage
of making it easier to configure but has a couple of disadvantages: first,
the middleware would need to check if the request path is one of the
SAML endpoints for every request. Second, it would be too magical and in
case of a problem, much harder to debug.

**Why not call this package django-saml as many other Django applications?**

Following that pattern then I should import the application with
import saml but unfortunately that module name is already used in pysaml2.


Changes
=======

0.2.3 (2011-06-14)
-----------------
- Set a unusable password when the user is created for the first time

0.2.2 (2011-06-07)
------------------
- Prevent infinite loop when going to the /saml2/login/ endpoint and the user
is already logged in and the settings.LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL is (badly) pointing
to /saml2/login.

0.2.1 (2011-05-09)
------------------
- If no next parameter is supplied to the login view, use the
settings.LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL as default

0.2.0 (2011-04-26)
------------------
- Python 2.4 compatible if the elementtree library is installed
- Allow post processing after the authentication phase by using
Django signals.

0.1.1 (2011-04-18)
------------------
- Simple view to echo SAML attributes
- Improve documentation
- Change default behaviour when a new user is created. Now their attributes
are filled this first time
- Allow to set a next page after the logout

0.1.0 (2011-03-16)
------------------
- Emancipation from the pysaml package