Shibboleth (Internet2)

Shibboleth is a single sign-on (log-in) system for computer networks and the Internet. It allows people to sign in using just one identity to various systems run by federations of different organizations or institutions. The federations are often universities or public service organizations.

The Shibboleth Internet2 middleware initiative created an architecture and open-source implementation for identity management and federated identity-based authentication and authorization (or access control) infrastructure based on Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Federated identity allows the sharing of information about users from one security domain to the other organizations in a federation. This allows for cross-domain single sign-on and removes the need for content providers to maintain user names and passwords. Identity providers (IdPs) supply user information, while service providers (SPs) consume this information and give access to secure content.

The Shibboleth project was started in 2000 under the MACE working group to address problems in sharing resources between organizations with often wildly different authentication and authorization infrastructures. Architectural work was performed for over a year prior to any development. After an alpha, two betas, and two point releases were distributed to testing communities, Shibboleth 1.0 was released on July 1, 2003. Shibboleth 1.3 was released on August 26, 2005, with several point releases since then. Shibboleth 2.0 was released on March 19, 2008.

Shibboleth is a web-based technology that implements the HTTP/POST, artifact, and attribute push profiles of SAML, including both Identity Provider (IdP) and Service Provider (SP) components. Shibboleth 1.3 has its own technical overview, architectural document, and conformance document that build on top of the SAML 1.1 specifications.

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