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SignXML is an implementation of the W3C XML Signature standard in Python. This standard (also known as XMLDSig and RFC 3275) is used to provide payload security in SAML 2.0 and WS-Security, among other uses. Three versions of the standard exist (Version 1 “Second Edition”, Version 1.1, and Version 2.0). SignXML implements all of the required components of the standard, and most recommended ones. Its features are:

  • Use of defusedxml.lxml to defend against common XML-based attacks when verifying signatures

  • Extensions to allow signing with and verifying X.509 certificate chains, including hostname/CN validation

  • Support for exclusive XML canonicalization with inclusive prefixes (InclusiveNamespaces PrefixList, required to verify signatures generated by some SAML implementations)

  • Modern Python compatibility (2.7-3.5+ and PyPy)

  • Well-supported, portable, reliable dependencies: lxml, defusedxml, cryptography, eight, pyOpenSSL

  • Comprehensive testing (including the XMLDSig interoperability suite) and continuous integration

  • Simple interface with useful defaults

  • Compactness, readability, and extensibility

Installation

pip install signxml

Note: SignXML depends on lxml and cryptography, which in turn depend on OpenSSL, LibXML, and Python tools to interface with them. You can install those as follows:

OS

Python

Command

Ubuntu 16.04

Python 2

apt-get install python-dev python-cffi libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev python-lxml python-cryptography python-openssl python-certifi python-defusedxml

Ubuntu 16.04

Python 3

apt-get install python3-dev python3-cffi libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev python3-lxml python3-cryptography python3-openssl python3-certifi python3-defusedxml

Ubuntu 14.04

Python 2

apt-get install python-dev python-cffi libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev

Ubuntu 14.04

Python 3

apt-get install python3-dev python3-cffi libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev

Ubuntu 12.04

Python 2

apt-get install python-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev; pip install cffi

Red Hat

Python 2

yum install python-devel python-cffi libxml2-devel libxslt1-devel openssl-devel

Red Hat

Python 3

yum install python3-devel python3-cffi libxml2-devel libxslt1-devel openssl-devel

OS X/Homebrew

xcode-select --install; brew install openssl; export LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib" CFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include"

Synopsis

SignXML uses the ElementTree API (also supported by lxml) to work with XML data.

from signxml import XMLSigner, XMLVerifier

cert = open("example.pem").read()
key = open("example.key").read()
root = ElementTree.fromstring(data_to_sign)
signed_root = XMLSigner().sign(root, key=key, cert=cert)
verified_data = XMLVerifier().verify(signed_root).signed_xml

Verifying SAML assertions

Assuming metadata.xml contains SAML metadata for the assertion source:

from lxml import etree
from base64 import b64decode
from signxml import XMLVerifier

with open("metadata.xml", "rb") as fh:
    cert = etree.parse(fh).find("//ds:X509Certificate").text

assertion_data = XMLVerifier().verify(b64decode(assertion_body), x509_cert=cert).signed_xml

Example: Signing and verifying a SAML assertion

TODO

XML signature methods: enveloped, detached, enveloping

The XML Signature specification defines three ways to compose a signature with the data being signed: enveloped, detached, and enveloping signature. Enveloped is the default method. To specify the type of signature that you want to generate, pass the method argument to sign():

signed_root = XMLSigner(method=signxml.methods.detached).sign(root, key=key, cert=cert)
verified_data = XMLVerifier().verify(signed_root).signed_xml

For detached signatures, the code above will use the Id or ID attribute of root to generate a relative URI (<Reference URI="#value"). You can also override the value of URI by passing a reference_uri argument to sign(). To verify a detached signature that refers to an external entity, pass a callable resolver in XMLVerifier().verify(data, uri_resolver=...).

Example: Signing and verifying a SOAP WS-Security envelope

TODO

See the API documentation for more.

Authors

  • Andrey Kislyuk

License

Licensed under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0.

https://img.shields.io/travis/XML-Security/signxml.svg https://codecov.io/github/XML-Security/signxml/coverage.svg?branch=master https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/signxml.svg https://img.shields.io/pypi/l/signxml.svg https://readthedocs.org/projects/signxml/badge/?version=latest

Metadata

Release files for signxml 2.4.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

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Source distribution for signxml 2.4.0
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Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for signxml 2.4.0
File Interpreter ABI Platform
signxml-2.4.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl Python 2, Python 3 none any Details

Total release size: 57.2 kB

Release files / signxml-2.4.0.tar.gz

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