The root <md:EntitiesDescriptor> element of a remotely obtained metadata file should be decorated with a validUntil XML attribute. Before the metadata is loaded, the expiration date is checked. If the validUntil attribute indicates the metadata is expired, the metadata is discarded.
The validity check described in the previous paragraph is always performed, regardless of the filters applied to the metadata. In addition to this basic validity check, the RequiredValidUntil filter is used to detect metadata that never expires or has too long a validity period, both of which undermine the usual trust model supported by Shibboleth. In particular, the RequiredValidUntil filter refuses to load the metadata if either of the following conditions is true:
The root XML element does not contain a
validUntilattribute.- The value of the
validUntilattribute is too far into the future as specified by themaxValidityIntervalattribute.
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Under normal circumstances, it is very important to configure this filter because expiring metadata is how trust revocation is enforced. See the TrustManagement topic for details. |
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