The Shibboleth V1 software has reached its End of Life and is no longer supported. This documentation is available for historical purposes only.

SPPKIConfig

Server Credentials & PKI

The service provider uses PKI to authenticate signed assertions from and establish secure, mutually identified connections directly with IdPs. The credentials used by the SP for these flows are defined in Credentials element of shibboleth.xml. Individual sets of credentials for these purposes are specified on a per relying party and protocol handler (TLS or XML signing) basis. It is important that these credentials match those supplied to relying parties and federations as included in metadata.xml or trust failures will result.

Sessions between end-users and the webserver/webapps should be SSL-protected in most cases. It is permissible for Shibboleth to use the same keypair and certificate used by the web server itself, provided the certificate is signed by a CA accepted by both the IdPs that will be queried for attributes and commonly used browsers. Most well-known roots will satisfy both conditions but many federations will have specifications on accepted credentials.

On Unix, OpenSSL must be installed to use Shibboleth. On Windows, OpenSSL libraries and the command line tool are included in the package and can be used directly, if not otherwise available. Certain commands require the openssl.cnf configuration file, an example of which is included with the Windows installation in C:\opt\shibboleth\etc\shibboleth\openssl.cnf. To locate this file for a command that requires it, add the -config C:\opt\shibboleth\etc\shibboleth\openssl.cnf parameter to the command.

The certificate and key file location should be based on whether they will also be used for Apache. If they will be used as a server key pair as well, they should probably be in the Apache tree in the usual mod_ssl defined locations inside the Apache configuration folder, and the Shibboleth module can read them from there. If shibd is not running as root, permissions might need to be changed to allow this access. If the certificate and key will only be used for the SHAR, they can be put in the same folder with the shibboleth.xml file and protected appropriately.

Other web servers like IIS do not use the file formats that Apache and Shibboleth can share, and therefore the components must generally use separate copies of the key and certificate if they are to be shared. Most other servers can export and/or import keys to and from PEM or DER format. Refer to your server's documentation.

shibd is assigned a key and a certificate using the CredentialUse element of shibboleth.xml. Various formats are supported and OpenSSL can generate and convert among them.

If the key is to be shared with Apache, the web server's child processes, often running as nobody or a similar uid , must be able to read them while the server is running, which may require permission changes.

This particularly applies when sharing the key and certificate used by mod_ssl , which are only readable by root by default. The password, if any, must be placed in the shibboleth.xml file, since the Apache module cannot prompt for it during initial startup as mod_ssl can. Since the password will be stored in clear text in a frequently examined file, it is suggested to use a password not used elsewhere, or preferably not to use a password at all.

Example usage:

<Credentials xmlns="urn:mace:shibboleth:credentials:1.0">
    <FileResolver Id="mycerts">
        <Key>
            <Path>file:/opt/shibboleth-sp/etc/shibboleth/supervillain.key</Path>
        </Key>
        <Certificate>
            <Path>file:/opt/shibboleth-sp/etc/shibboleth/supervillain.crt</Path>
        </Certificate>
    </FileResolver>
</Credentials>

<Credentials xmlns="urn:mace:shibboleth:credentials:1.0">

This element is the container for credentials used by the credential mechanism specified by the SPConfig element. It must contain one FileResolver element for flat key and certificate files or one KeyStoreResolver element for compound keystores.

File-Based Key and Certificate Storage

Flat-file based certificate storage and protection is by far the most straightforward and common credential storage mechanism. Shibboleth supports .pem and .der encodings. These certificate files may be easily shared by both Apache and Shibboleth in the common case where the same key and cert are used for all flows.

It is critical that these files be stored with appropriate permissions in an appropriate location. Any compromise of these files represents a compromise of your entire Service Provider. Revoke the certificate and contact all your relying parties immediately.

<FileResolver Id="string">

This element defines a pair of files used to store a private key and certificate associated with a given identifier and is contained by the Credentials element. RelyingParty elements will refer to these identifiers allowing multiple resolver elements to be used to specify different credential storage for different federations or identity providers. It must contain one Key element and should contain one Certificate element.

<Certificate>

This specifies the certificate corresponding to this set of credentials. Certificates are supported in a variety of automatically detected formats: DER, PEM, PKCS8, PKCS12, and all associated encrypted forms. The certificate itself must be referred to using a Path element contained by this element. If this certificate isn't self-signed or signed by a root familiar to the identity provider, the files of certificates in the path to the root may be specified using one or more CAPath elements. It resides within the FileResolver element and must be paired with the corresponding private key using the Key element. An optional type attribute can explicitly force a format if needed.

<Key password="password">

This specifies the file containing a private key to be used by a set of credentials. Keys are supported in a variety of automatically detected formats: DER, PEM, PKCS8, PKCS12, and all associated encrypted forms. For encrypted keys, the password may be specified by adding an optional password attribute to this element. It resides within the FileResolver element, should be paired with a Certificate element, and contain a Path element. An optional type attribute can explicitly force a format if needed.

<CAPath>pathname</CAPath>

Paired with a Path element and contained by a FileResolver element, this element allows for the specification of additional certificates in the chain up to the trust anchor. As many CAPath elements as necessary to complete the chain may be specified. The expectations of identity providers and the federation may determine the necessity for the use of this field.

<Path>pathname</Path>

This mandatory element specifies the path to a file or directory utilized by other elements of the configuration. It may be contained by various elements to point to different types of files required by the SP.