What is SAML?

What is SAML?

• A web programming language
• A cloud service provider
• A protocol used in Identity Federation
• An account database used in early Windows versions

EXPLANATION

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML, pronounced SAM-el^[1]) is an open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties, in particular, between an identity provider and a service provider. SAML is an XML-based markup language for security assertions (statements that service providers use to make access-control decisions). SAML is also:

• A set of XML-based protocol messages
• A set of protocol message bindings
• A set of profiles (utilizing all of the above)

The single most important use case that SAML addresses is web browser single sign-on (SSO). Single sign-on is relatively easy to accomplish within a security domain (using cookies, for example) but extending SSO across security domains is more difficult and resulted in the proliferation of non-interoperable proprietary technologies. The SAML Web Browser SSO profile was specified and standardized to promote interoperability.^[2] (For comparison, the more recent OpenID Connect protocol^[3] is an alternative approach to web browser SSO.)