SAML Single Sign-On Integrations

Describes the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for single sign-on (SSO) integration options.

When you implement SAML single sign-on (SSO), it’s important to consider:

• Which system(s) will serve as the authoritative source for user profile information if there’s ever a conflict between two or more sources.
• What user profile attributes each application needs.
• How user profile information will be distributed to the systems that need it.

You typically set up a SAML federation by configuring SSO initiated by the service provider. The service provider returns a browser redirect so that the user authenticates using the IdP. After authentication, the browser redirects the user back to the service provider with a SAML assertion containing information about the authentication status. This is commonly used for consumer-facing scenarios.

You can also configure the IdP to initiate SSO instead of the service provider. In this scenario, the user invokes a URL on the IdP and is prompted to authenticate, then is redirected to the service provider with a SAML assertion. This is commonly used in enterprise scenarios.

We have many SSO integrations that use Auth0 as the IdP. We also provide SSO integrations for other IdPs.