Security Assertion Markup Language

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an Open XML Based standard used to implementing Claim Based Authentication. It provides a set of protocols to exchange security tokens between applications and services in XML format.

As part of the SAML XML message we can pass attributes to the target application/service, example of attributes are Name, email, SSN, etc, this provides additional information about the user to the target application/service. The role of the user can also be passed as an attribute, so that the target application/service can provide limited services to the user based on the role attribute.



SAML can be used to implement
Single Sign On for Multiple Applications / Websites.
Provide role based assess based on the attributes.
Provided additional security to web services by demanding a SAML security token.

To know more about SAML refer to the site
http://saml.xml.org/