(Registered 15 December 2004) (References updated 6 February 2006) The IESG has approved a request to register the "application/samlassertion+xml" MIME media type in the standards tree. This media type is a product of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems (OASIS). The IESG contact persons are Ted Hardie and Scott Hollenbeck. MIME media type name: application MIME subtype name: samlassertion+xml Required parameters: none Optional parameters: charset Same as charset parameter of application/xml [RFC3023]. Encoding considerations: Same as for application/xml [RFC3023]. Security considerations: Per their specification, samlassertion+xml typed objects do not contain executable content. However, SAML assertions are XML-based objects [XML]. As such, they have all of the general security considerations presented in section 10 of [RFC3023], as well as additional ones, since they are explicit security objects. For example, samlassertion+xml typed objects will often contain data that may identify or pertain to a natural person, and may be used as a basis for sessions and access control decisions. To counter potential issues, samlassertion+xml typed objects contain data that should be signed appropriately by the sender. Any such signature must be verified by the recipient of the data - both as a valid signature, and as being the signature of the sender. Issuers of samlassertion+xml objects containing SAMLv2 assertions may also encrypt all, or portions of, the assertions [SAMLv2Core]. In addition, SAML profiles and protocol bindings specify use of secure channels as appropriate. [SAMLv2.0] incorporates various privacy-protection techniques in its design. For example: opaque handles, specific to interactions between specific system entities, are assigned to subjects. The handles are mappable to wider-context identifiers (e.g. email addresses, account identifiers, etc) by only the specific parties. For a more detailed discussion of SAML security considerations and specific security-related design techniques, please refer to the SAML specifications listed in the below bibliography. The specifications containing security-specific information have been explicitly listed for each version of SAML. Interoperability considerations: SAML assertions are explicitly versioned. Relying parties should ensure that they observe assertion version information and behave accordingly. See "Chapter 4 SAML Versioning" in [SAMLv1Core], [SAMLv11Core], or [SAMLv2Core], as appropriate. Published specification: [SAMLv2Bind] explicitly specifies use of the application/samlassertion+xml MIME media type. However, it is conceivable that non-SAMLv2 assertions (i.e. SAMLv1 and/or SAMLv1.1) might in practice be conveyed using SAMLv2 bindings. Applications which use this media type: Potentially any application implementing SAML, as well as those applications implementing specifications based on SAML, e.g. those available from the Liberty Alliance [LAP]. Additional information: Magic number(s): In general, the same as for application/xml [RFC3023]. In particular, the XML root element of the returned object will be , where "saml" maps to a version-specific SAML assertion namespace, as defined by the appropriate SAML "core" specification (see bibliography). In the case of SAMLv2.0, the root element of the returned object may be either or , where "saml" maps to the SAMLv2.0 assertion namespace: urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion File extension(s): none Macintosh File Type Code(s): none Person & email address to contact for further information: This registration is made on behalf of the OASIS Security Services Technical Committee (SSTC) Please refer to the SSTC website for current information on committee chairperson(s) and their contact addresses: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/. Committee members should submit comments and potential errata to the securityservices at lists.oasis-open.org list. Others should submit them by filling out the web form located at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/comments/form.php?wg_abbrev=secur Additionally, the SAML developer community email distribution list, saml-dev at lists.oasis-open.org, may be employed to discuss usage of the application/samlassertion+xml MIME media type. The "saml-dev" mailing list is publicly archived here: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/saml-dev/. To post to the "saml-dev" mailing list, one must subscribe to it. To subscribe, send a message with the single word "subscribe" in the message body, to: saml-dev-request at lists.oasis-open.org. Intended usage: COMMON Author/Change controller: The SAML specification sets are a work product of the OASIS Security Services Technical Committee (SSTC). OASIS and the SSTC have change control over the SAML specification sets. Bibliography [LAP] "Liberty Alliance Project". See http://www.projectliberty.org/ [OASIS] "Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems". See http://www.oasis-open.org/ [RFC3023] M. Murata, S. St.Laurent, D. Kohn, "XML Media Types", IETF Request for Comments 3023, January 2001. Available as http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3023.txt [SAMLv1.0] OASIS Security Services Technical Committee, "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Version 1.0 Specification Set". OASIS Standard 200205, November 2002. Available as http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/2290/ oasis-sstc-saml-1.0.zip [SAMLv1Bind] Prateek Mishra et al., "Bindings and Profiles for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)", OASIS, November 2002. Document ID oasis-sstc-saml-bindings-1.0. See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [SAMLv1Core] Phillip Hallam-Baker et al., "Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)", OASIS, November 2002. Document ID oasis-sstc-saml-core-1.0. See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [SAMLv1Sec] Chris McLaren et al., "Security Considerations for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)", OASIS, November 2002. Document ID oasis-sstc-saml-sec-consider-1.0. See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [SAMLv1.1] OASIS Security Services Technical Committee, "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Version 1.1 Specification Set". OASIS Standard 200308, August 2003. Available as http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/3400/ oasis-sstc-saml-1.1-pdf-xsd.zip [SAMLv11Bind] E. Maler et al. "Bindings and Profiles for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)". OASIS, September 2003. Document ID oasis-sstc-saml-bindings-1.1. http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [SAMLv11Core] E. Maler et al. "Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)". OASIS, September 2003. Document ID oasis-sstc-saml-core-1.1. http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [SAMLv11Sec] E. Maler et al. "Security Considerations for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)". OASIS, September 2003. Document ID oasis-sstc-saml-sec-consider-1.1. http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [SAMLv2.0] OASIS Security Services Technical Committee, "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Version 2.0 Specification Set". OASIS Standard, 15-Mar-2005. Available at: http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-2.0-os.zip [SAMLv2Bind] S. Cantor et al., "Bindings for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) V2.0". OASIS, March 2005. Document ID saml-bindings-2.0-os. Available at: http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-bindings-2.0-os.pdf [SAMLv2Core] S. Cantor et al., "Assertions and Protocols for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) V2.0". OASIS, March 2005. Document ID saml-core-2.0-os. Available at: http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-core-2.0-os.pdf [SAMLv2Prof] S. Cantor et al., "Profiles for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) V2.0". OASIS, March 2005. Document ID saml-profiles-2.0-os. Available at: http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-profiles-2.0-os.pdf [SAMLv2Sec] F. Hirsch et al., "Security and Privacy Considerations for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) V2.0". OASIS, March 2005. Document ID saml-sec-consider-2.0-os. Available at: http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-sec-consider-2.0-os.pdf [SSTC] "OASIS Security Services Technical Committee". See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/ [XML] Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, C.M. and E. Maler, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)", World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xml, October 2000, Available as http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml