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Checking references for intended status: Informational ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Obsolete informational reference (is this intentional?): RFC 4844 (Obsoleted by RFC 8729) Summary: 0 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 1 warning (==), 2 comments (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group I. Young, Ed. 3 Internet-Draft Independent 4 Intended status: Informational L. Johansson 5 Expires: November 16, 2014 SUNET 6 S. Cantor 7 Shibboleth Consortium 8 May 15, 2014 10 The Entity Category SAML Entity Metadata Attribute Types 11 draft-young-entity-category-01 13 Abstract 15 This document describes a SAML entity attribute which can be used to 16 assign category membership semantics to an entity, and a second 17 attribute for use in claiming interoperation or support for entities 18 in such categories. 20 This document is a product of the Research and Education Federations 21 (REFEDS) Working Group process. 23 Status of This Memo 25 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 26 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 28 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 29 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 30 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 31 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 33 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 34 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 35 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 36 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 38 This Internet-Draft will expire on November 16, 2014. 40 Copyright Notice 42 Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 43 document authors. All rights reserved. 45 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 46 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 47 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 48 publication of this document. Please review these documents 49 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 50 to this document. 52 Table of Contents 54 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 55 1.1. REFEDS Document Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 56 2. Notation and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 57 3. Entity Category Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 58 3.1. Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 59 3.2. Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 60 3.3. Entity Category Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 61 4. Entity Category Support Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 62 4.1. Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 63 4.2. Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 64 4.3. Entity Category Support Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 65 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 66 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 67 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 68 7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 69 7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 70 Appendix A. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 71 Appendix B. Change Log (to be removed by RFC Editor before 72 publication) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 73 B.1. Since draft-young-entity-category-00 . . . . . . . . . . 9 74 B.2. Since draft-macedir-entity-category . . . . . . . . . . . 9 76 1. Introduction 78 This document describes a SAML attribute, referred to here as the 79 "entity category attribute", values of which represent entity types 80 or categories. When used with the SAML V2.0 Metadata Extension for 81 Entity Attributes [SAML2MetadataAttr] each such entity category 82 attribute value represents a claim that the entity thus labelled 83 meets the requirements of, and is asserted to be a member of, the 84 indicated category. 86 These category membership claims MAY be used by a relying party to 87 provision policy for release of attributes from an identity provider, 88 to influence user interface decisions such as those related to 89 identity provider discovery, or for any other purpose. In general, 90 the intended uses of any claim of membership in a given category will 91 depend on the details of the category's definition, and will often be 92 included as part of that definition. 94 Entity category attribute values are URIs, and this document does not 95 specify a controlled vocabulary. Category URIs may therefore be 96 defined by any appropriate authority without any requirement for 97 central registration. It is anticipated that other specifications 98 may provide management and discovery mechanisms for entity category 99 attribute values. 101 A second SAML attribute, referred to here as the "entity category 102 support attribute", contains URI values which represent claims by an 103 entity to support and/or interoperate with entities in a given 104 category or categories. These values, defined in conjunction with 105 specific entity category values, provide entities in a category with 106 the means to identify peer entities that wish to interact with them 107 in category-specific fashion. 109 1.1. REFEDS Document Process 111 The Research and Education Federations group ([REFEDS]) is the voice 112 that articulates the mutual needs of research and education identity 113 federations worldwide. It aims to represent the requirements of 114 research and education in the ever-growing space of access and 115 identity management. 117 From time to time REFEDS will wish to publish a document in the 118 Internet RFC series. Such documents will be published as part of the 119 RFC Independent Submission Stream [RFC4844]; however the REFEDS 120 working group sign-off process will have been followed for these 121 documents, as described in the REFEDS Participant's Agreement 122 [REFEDS.agreement]. 124 This document is a product of the REFEDS Working Group process. 126 2. Notation and Conventions 128 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 129 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 130 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [BCP14]. 132 3. Entity Category Attribute 134 3.1. Syntax 136 Entity category attribute values MUST be URIs. It is RECOMMENDED 137 that http:-scheme or https:-scheme URLs are used, and further 138 RECOMMENDED that each such value resolves to a human-readable 139 document defining the category. 141 The entity category attribute MUST be encoded as a SAML 2.0 Attribute 142 element with @NameFormat urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname- 143 format:uri and @Name http://macedir.org/entity-category. 145 A SAML entity is associated with one or more categories by including 146 the Attribute element described here in the entity's metadata through 147 use of the [SAML2MetadataAttr] metadata extension, in which the 148 Attribute element is contained within an mdattr:EntityAttributes 149 element directly contained within an md:Extensions element directly 150 contained within the entity's md:EntityDescriptor. The meaning of 151 the entity category attribute is undefined by this specification if 152 it appears anywhere else within a metadata instance, or within any 153 other XML document. 155 3.2. Semantics 157 The presence of the entity category attribute within an entity's 158 entity attributes represents a series of claims (one for each 159 attribute value) that the entity is a member of each named category. 160 The precise semantics of such a claim depend on the definition of the 161 category itself. 163 The definition of the concept of a category is intentionally not 164 addressed in this document, in order to leave it as general as 165 possible. However, to be useful, category definitions SHOULD include 166 the following as appropriate: 168 o A definition of the authorities who may validly assert membership 169 in the category. While membership in some categories may be self- 170 asserted informally by an entity's owner, others may need to be 171 validated by third parties such as the entity's home federation or 172 other registrar. 174 o A set of criteria by which an entity's membership in the category 175 can be objectively assessed. 177 o A definition of the processes by which valid authorities may 178 determine that an entity meets the category's membership criteria. 180 o A description of the anticipated uses for category membership by 181 relying parties. 183 If significant changes are made to a category definition, the new 184 version of the category SHOULD be represented by a different category 185 URI. 187 Entity category attribute value URIs MUST be treated as opaque 188 strings. 190 3.3. Entity Category Example 191 193 194 196 199 http://example.org/category/dog 201 urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.21829 202 203 204 205 ... 206 208 4. Entity Category Support Attribute 210 4.1. Syntax 212 Entity category support attribute values MUST be URIs. It is 213 RECOMMENDED that http:-scheme or https:-scheme URLs are used, and 214 further RECOMMENDED that each such value resolves to a human-readable 215 document defining the value's semantics. A given entity category 216 value MAY be associated with multiple support values in order to 217 allow for multiple forms of support, participation, or interoperation 218 with entities in the category. 220 The entity category support attribute MUST be encoded as a SAML 2.0 221 Attribute element with @NameFormat urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0 222 :attrname-format:uri and @Name http://macedir.org/entity-category- 223 support. 225 A SAML entity claims a form of support for entities in one or more 226 categories by including the Attribute element described here in the 227 entity's metadata through use of the [SAML2MetadataAttr] metadata 228 extension, in which the Attribute element is contained within an 229 mdattr:EntityAttributes element directly contained within an 230 md:Extensions element directly contained within the entity's 231 md:EntityDescriptor. The meaning of the entity category support 232 attribute is undefined by this specification if it appears anywhere 233 else within a metadata instance, or within any other XML document. 235 4.2. Semantics 236 The presence of the entity category support attribute within an 237 entity's entity attributes represents a series of claims (one for 238 each attribute value) that the entity supports peer entities in a 239 category in a particular fashion. The precise semantics of such a 240 claim depend on the definition of the category support identifier 241 itself. Category support claims will often be defined to be self- 242 asserted. 244 The definition of the concept of "support" for a category is 245 intentionally not addressed in this document, in order to leave it as 246 general as possible. It is assumed that entity category definitions 247 MAY define one or more support values signifying particular 248 definitions for "support" by peers as motivated by use cases arising 249 from the definition of the category itself. 251 A common case is expected to be the definition of a single support 252 value whose URI is identical to that defined for the category itself. 254 If significant changes are made to a category support definition, the 255 new version SHOULD be represented by a different category support 256 URI. 258 Entity category support attribute value URIs MUST be treated as 259 opaque strings. 261 4.3. Entity Category Support Example 263 265 266 268 271 http://example.org/category/dog/basic 273 http://example.org/category/dog/advanced 275 urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.21829 276 277 278 279 ... 280 282 5. IANA Considerations 284 This memo includes no request to IANA. 286 6. Security Considerations 288 The presence of the entity category attribute within an entity's 289 entity attributes represents a series of claims (one for each 290 attribute value) that the entity is a member of the named categories. 291 Before accepting and acting on such claims, any relying party needs 292 to establish, at a level of assurance sufficient for the intended 293 use, a chain of trust concluding that the claim is justified. 295 Some of the elements in such a chain of trust might include: 297 o The integrity of the metadata delivered to the relying party, as 298 for example assured by a digital signature. 300 o If the entity category attribute is carried within a signed 301 assertion, the assertion itself must be evaluated. 303 o The procedures and policies of the immediate source of the 304 metadata; in particular, any procedures the immediate source has 305 with regard to aggregation of metadata from other sources. 307 o The policies and procedures implemented by agents along the 308 publication path from the original metadata registrar: this may be 309 determined either by examination of the published procedures of 310 each agent in turn, or may be simplified if the entity metadata 311 includes publication path metadata as described in the 312 [SAML2MetadataDRI] extension. 314 o The policies and procedures implemented by the original metadata 315 registrar. 317 o The definition of the category itself; in particular, any 318 statements it makes about whether membership of the category may 319 be self-asserted, or may only be asserted by particular 320 authorities. 322 Although entity category support attribute values will often be 323 defined as self-asserted claims by the containing entity, the 324 provenance of the metadata remains relevant to a relying party's 325 decision to accept a claim of support as legitimate, and the specific 326 definition of a support claim will influence the assurance required 327 to act on it. 329 7. References 331 7.1. Normative References 333 [BCP14] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 334 Requirement Levels ", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 336 [SAML2MetadataAttr] 337 Cantor, S., Ed., "SAML V2.0 Metadata Extension for Entity 338 Attributes", August 2009, 339 . 341 [SAML2MetadataDRI] 342 La Joie, C., Ed., "SAML V2.0 Metadata Extensions for 343 Registration and Publication Information Version 1.0", 344 April 2012, 345 . 347 7.2. Informative References 349 [REFEDS.agreement] 350 Research and Education Federations, "REFEDS Participant's 351 Agreement", , . 354 [REFEDS] Research and Education Federations, "REFEDS Home Page", , 355 . 357 [RFC4844] Daigle, L. Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC Series 358 and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007. 360 Appendix A. Acknowledgements 362 This work has been a collaborative effort within the REFEDS and MACE- 363 Dir communities. Special thanks to (in no particular order): 365 o RL 'Bob' Morgan 367 o Ken Klingenstein 369 o Keith Hazelton 371 o Steven Olshansky 373 o Mikael Linden 375 o Nicole Harris 376 o Tom Scavo 378 Appendix B. Change Log (to be removed by RFC Editor before publication) 380 B.1. Since draft-young-entity-category-00 382 Update affiliations for Leif Johansson and Scott Cantor. 384 Remove authors from acknowledgements. 386 Reorganize some of the introductory boilerplate sections. 388 B.2. Since draft-macedir-entity-category 390 Adopted as base for draft-young-entity-category-00. 392 Changed ipr from "pre5378Trust200902" to "trust200902" and submission 393 type from IETF to independent. 395 Designate Ian Young as editor for this version. Set more general 396 affiliation. 398 Modernised reference to RFC 2119 [BCP14] and moved that reference to 399 the introduction. 401 Adjusted layout of examples so that they don't exceed the RFC 402 standard line length. 404 Minor typographical nits but (intentionally) no substantive content 405 changes. 407 Authors' Addresses 409 Ian A. Young (editor) 410 Independent 412 EMail: ian@iay.org.uk 414 Leif Johansson 415 SUNET 417 EMail: leifj@sunet.se 418 Scott Cantor 419 Shibboleth Consortium 421 EMail: cantor.2@osu.edu