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Subject: RE: [saml-dev] (ex / non ex) canonical XML


Yes, for example, the first SAML Interop used SSL only with the Artifact Profile.

 

I don’t think there is any problem with inclusive c14n unless you stick the signed material (assertion) into a surrounding XML document. None of the web browser profiles (the focus of early work) do this. The WSS SAML Token Profile does this, but it was not approved until 2004.

 

The reason for the change was not that we experienced any problems. Excl c14n did not exist when SAML 1.0 was finished. When excl c14n became available, its advantages for applications such as WSS were recognized and the SAML specs were adjusted accordingly. We switched to always using excl c14n for uniformity, although the use of incl c14n is perfectly satisfactory in many cases.

 

Strictly speaking, the problems you might encounter are not Interoperability (each algo is identified in the Signature element and Incl if anything is more pervasive) but rather a matter of spurious verification errors. In the WS-I Eve Maler proposed lumping these under a general category of Operational errors, to distinguish them from Interoperability problems or Security vulnerabilities.

 

Hal

 


From: Cahill, Conor P [mailto:conor.p.cahill@intel.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 9:19 AM
To: Brian Campbell; saml-dev@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [saml-dev] (ex / non ex) canonical XML

 

 

I think many early implementations worked without the need for signatures (e.g. artifiact across browser and unsigned assertion on trusted back channel).

 

Conor

 


From: Brian Campbell [mailto:bcampbell@pingidentity.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 9:15 AM
To: saml-dev@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [saml-dev] (ex / non ex) canonical XML

All,

 

Forces beyond my control have taken me on a little trip back in time to look at SAML 1.0 (I didn’t get involved in this space until after SAML 1.1 was out so this has been an interesting learning experience for me).   I see that one of the major differences between dot zero and dot one is changing the recommended c14n method from canonical XML (http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-c14n-20010315) to exclusive canonical XML (http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#).  I can see why this change was made and, although I’ve not yet had the pleasure, I can imagine that there were some interoperability problems when trying to use the non-exclusive transform.  My question is - how did SAML 1.0 implementations deal with this?  Were they only able to interoperate when signatures where applied to the response in the post profile?  What is the value of a signed assertion if the signature cannot be verified independent of its original document context (I guess there isn’t one and that’s why 1.1 made the change but did implementations try to work around it somehow)?  Did implementers end up just using exclusive in spite of the spec recommendation?  

 

I would appreciate any historical perspective that can be provided by those of you that have been involved with stuff longer than I.

 

Thanks,

Brian

 

By the way, the sstc-saml-diff-1.1-draft-01 document has proven to be a very informative resource - I’d like to say thanks to Prateek, Dipak, Jahan and Robert.

 



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