Assertion Replay Prevention Service

The Assertion Replay Prevention Service tracks POST assertions to prevent replay.

SAML standards specify that when a service provider (SP) receives assertions from the POST binding, the SP should keep track of each assertion for the duration of its validity to ensure that it is not replayed (that is, intercepted by a third party and re-posted). For OAuth and OpenID Connect, PingFederate can mandate a unique signed JSON Web Token (JWT) from the client for each request when the client is configured to authenticate via the private_key_jwt client authentication method, to transmit request parameters using in signed request objects, or to do both. PingFederate delegates these responsibilities to the Assertion Replay Prevention Service.

When PingFederate is in clustered mode, the service proxy uses a group RPC-based, preferred-nodes implementation. The configuration file is <pf_install>/pingfederate/server/default/conf/cluster-assertion-replay-prevention.conf.

The Assertion Replay Prevention Service supports both adaptive clustering and directed clustering.

For adaptive clustering, PingFederate shares token (assertion or JWT) information with a replica set. If region identifiers are defined, PingFederate shares token information among multiple replica sets across regions. You can optionally override this default behavior in the configuration file for adaptive clustering.

For directed clustering, you must choose between the sharing all nodes and designating state servers deployment strategies in directed clustering for this service.

The service proxy uses the class org.sourceid.saml20.service.impl.grouprpc.AssertionReplayPreventionServiceGroupRpcImpl.

Unlike other services, the Assertion Replay Prevention Service fulfills only a security condition, rather than supporting normal SSO functionality, because there might be situations where the priority placed on cluster performance outweighs the priority placed on this security check. If you are in this situation, you have the option to change the implementation for the service point AssertionReplayPreventionService in the <pf_install>/pingfederate/server/default/conf/hivemodule.xml file to one of these classes: