signxml

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. Two versions of the standard exist (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 a libxml2-based XML parser configured to defend against common XML 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 (2.7-3.8+ and PyPy)
Well-supported, portable, reliable dependencies: lxml, cryptography, eight, pyOpenSSL
Comprehensive testing (including the XMLDSig interoperability suite) and continuous integration
Simple interface with useful defaults
Compactness, readability, and extensibility

Installation

pip3 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	Python 2	apt-get install python-dev python-cffi libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev libffi-dev python-lxml python-cryptography python-openssl python-certifi build-essential
Ubuntu	Python 3	apt-get install python3-dev python3-cffi libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-lxml python3-cryptography python3-openssl python3-certifi build-essential
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
Mac OS	Homebrew Python	Install Homebrew, then run brew install python.

Synopsis

SignXML uses the lxml ElementTree API to work with XML data.

from lxml import etree
from signxml import XMLSigner, XMLVerifier

data_to_sign = "<Test/>"
cert = open("example.pem").read()
key = open("example.key").read()
root = etree.fromstring(data_to_sign)
signed_root = XMLSigner().sign(root, key=key, cert=cert)
verified_data = XMLVerifier().verify(signed_root).signed_xml

To make this example self-sufficient for test purposes:

Generate a test certificate and key using openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -subj "/CN=test" -days 1 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout example.key -out example.pem.
Pass the x509_cert=cert keyword argument to XMLVerifier.verify(). (In production, ensure this is replaced with the correct configuration for the trusted CA or certificate - this determines which signatures your software trusts.)

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

See what is signed

It is important to understand and follow the best practice rule of “See what is signed” when verifying XML signatures. The gist of this rule is: if your application neglects to verify that the information it trusts is what was actually signed, the attacker can supply a valid signature but point you to malicious data that wasn’t signed by that signature. Failure to follow this rule can lead to vulnerability against attacks like SAML signature wrapping.

In SignXML, you can ensure that the information signed is what you expect to be signed by only trusting the data returned by the verify() method. The signed_xml attribute of the return value is the XML node or string that was signed.

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=...).

See the API documentation for more.

XML parsing security and compatibility with xml.etree.ElementTree

SignXML uses the lxml ElementTree library, not the ElementTree from Python’s standard library, to work with XML. lxml is used due to its superior resistance to XML attacks, as well as XML canonicalization and namespace organization features. It is recommended that you pass XML string input directly to signxml before further parsing, and use lxml to work with untrusted XML input in general. If you do pass trusted xml.etree.ElementTree objects to SignXML, you should be aware of differences in XML namespace handling between the two libraries. See the following references for more information:

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 2.7.1

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

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for signxml 2.7.1
File	Size	Uploaded
signxml-2.7.1.tar.gz	31.0 kB	Nov 30, 2019	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for signxml 2.7.1
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
signxml-2.7.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl 28.1 kB Nov 30, 2019	Python 2, Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 59.1 kB

Release files / signxml-2.7.1.tar.gz

Download URL	signxml-2.7.1.tar.gz
Size	31.0 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`01e115dd6a6b773b572f7898807e6f7d0de947a08d6234216d3d8bf8af3163df`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`6c30bed5a5854095764c57c8ba3a249e7eaa84a9db73d9fb908a566d9dcf5647`
Upload date	Nov 30, 2019
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/2.0.0 pkginfo/1.5.0.1 requests/2.22.0 setuptools/41.4.0 requests-toolbelt/0.9.1 tqdm/4.36.1 CPython/3.7.4`

Release files / signxml-2.7.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	signxml-2.7.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Size	28.1 kB
Tags	Python 2 Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`917515c2b23f3334c8628092ef9fed9fe08af6c502dea9a31a31caf875889e42`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`f60002e1a6c81581d1d970f7fa01e799b89e39f9a65dbc68f42cf806d776feef`
Upload date	Nov 30, 2019
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/2.0.0 pkginfo/1.5.0.1 requests/2.22.0 setuptools/41.4.0 requests-toolbelt/0.9.1 tqdm/4.36.1 CPython/3.7.4`

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signxml 2.7.1

Installation

Synopsis

Verifying SAML assertions

XML signature methods: enveloped, detached, enveloping

XML parsing security and compatibility with xml.etree.ElementTree

Authors

Links

Bugs

License

Project links

Key dates

1 maintainer

Credits

License

Classifiers

Metadata

Project links

Key dates

1 maintainer

Credits

License

Classifiers

Release files for signxml 2.7.1

Source distribution (sdist)

Built distribution (wheel)

Release files / signxml-2.7.1.tar.gz

Release files / signxml-2.7.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl

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