Managing signature verification settings
Under SAML 2.0 specifications, when your site receives any SAML 2.0 messages with the POST or Redirect bindings, the messages must be digitally signed.
About this task
Signing is also always required for the SAML 1.x POST binding and for WS-Federation assertions, as well as incoming SAML 1.1 or 2.0 tokens for WS-Trust STS processing.
Depending on your agreement with this idenity provider (IdP), single sign-on (SSO) assertions, SAML 2.0 artifacts, or SOAP messages might also require signatures.
Steps
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On the Signature Verification Settings tab, click Manage Signature Verification Settings.
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On the Trust Model tab, select a trust model on the Certificate Verification Method tab.
- Anchored
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The partner certificate must be signed by a trusted certificate authority (CA). Optionally, you can also restrict the issuer to a specific Trusted CA to mitigate potential man-in-the-middle attacks and to provide a means to isolate certificates used by different connections. The CA’s certificate must be imported into the PingFederate Trusted CA store in the Security → Certificate & Key Management → [.wintitle] Trusted CAs** window.
If you are using the redirect binding for single logout (SLO) or establishing an OAuth assertion grant connection to exchange JSON web tokens (JWTs) for access tokens. you cannot use anchored certificates because SAML 2.0 does not permit certificates to be included using this transport method and the signature verification process for JWTs requires the public keys to validate the digital signatures.
- Unanchored
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The partner certificate is self-signed or you want to trust a specified certificate.
When anchored certificates are used between partners, certificates can be changed without sending the update to your partner. If the certificate is unanchored, any changes must be promulgated.
For more information, see Digital signing policy coordination.
Trust model Subsequent steps Anchored
On the Subject DN window:
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Enter the
Subject DNof the certificate or extract it from your service provider (SP) partner’s certificate if the certificate is stored on an accessible file system. -
(Optional) Select the Restrict Issuer check box and enter the
Issuer DNof the certificate. Alternatively, extract it from your partner’s certificate.Consider enabling this option to mitigate potential man-in-the-middle attacks and to provide a means to isolate certificates used by different connections.
Unanchored
On the Signature Verification Certificate window:
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Select a certificate from the list. If you have not yet imported the certificate from your partner, click Manage Certificates to do so. See Managing certificates from partners.
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(Optional) Select additional certificates.
When configured, PingFederate considers a digital signature valid so long as it can verify the signature using one of the certificates from this list.
This is useful in situations where your partner has sent you a certificate to replace the current certificate. Adding this second certificate allows PingFederate to continue validating digital signatures as the partner switches to the new signing certificate.
It also adds support for the scenario where your partner uses a pool for certificates to sign its messages. Adding these certificates ensures digital signatures can be validated as the partner rotates its signing certificates.
On the Summary tab, review your configuration and perform one of the following tasks.
- Amend your configuration
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Click the corresponding tab title and then follow the configuration wizard to complete the task.
- Keep your changes
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Click Done and continue with the rest of the configuration.
When editing an existing configuration, you can also click Save as soon as the administrative console offers the opportunity to do so.
- Discard your changes
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Click Cancel.
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