Separating: Authenticate credential management, attribute management and ID management

Tuesday – Session 4 - I

Convener: Jim Fenton, Cisco Systems Notes-taker(s): Jari Koivisto, Cisco Systems A. Tags for the session - technology discussed/ideas considered:

Identity system, attribute, relying party, identity provider, authentication, assertion

B. Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

Short presentation and discussion

Introduction Terminology A basic identity system  e-commerce site  IdP  User

Elements of identity management  Authentication (establishing who the Subject is)  Credential managemen (prove to relying parties who the Subject is)  Attribute management (provide information about the subject)

User trust  User trust in their IdP is fundamental  An ecosystem of IdP is required

Authentication Authentication methods  Methods useful for user authentication are situation-specific  Problem: Many existing ID systems are bound tightly to IdP

Authentication Strength  Relying party knows how good the authentication should be

Authentication endpoint Security opportunities  Users that authenticate frequently at a given service are more likely to detect anomalies  IdP providers can detect anomalous user behavior  Similar to detection of fraudulent credit card transactions Credential management Credential management: functions  Act as a "key cabinet" for the user  Support directed ID  Enforce secure use of credentials

Directed identity Security and availability issues  Security  High value target  Availability  Failure of an ID manager may have severe impact on its Subjects Attribute management Distributed attributes  Self-asserted attributes have limited utility  Authoritative sources for different attributes come from different places  ID system has a role in locating trustable sources of attributes  Attributes delivered as signed assertions

Attribute distribution: Example  Example of Alice buying wine online  Alice  Wine merchant  IdP  DMV or Healthcare provider

Attribute trust  Federation: Prearranged trust relationsships  Accreditation: indirect federation  Financial institutions, schools Identity provider trust  IdP has fiduciary responsibility  To the Subject:  Must use credentials only for the proper Subject  To RPs:  Must associate attribute request and responses reliably  IdP may coincidentally funtion as an attribute provider

Observations  Scaling is critical  etc.

Discussion:  RPs have different views what is identity  Identity vs. Identity information  Different IdPs give different sets of attributes  What is the question that RP needs to ask (over 18/21 vs. birth day)  Attributes of the Subject, e.g. Subjects attibute is: Subject is Cisco employee  User -> RP -> User -> IdP -> User -> RP  Yes User is >18  Discussion about: Is it IdP who user trusts to get the attributes, or should User be the one who makes the decision  Discussion about the assertions, e.g. State assertion does not mean that it is necessary better than self assertion. Address as an example.  Federated trust frameworks, level of assurance (1, 2, 3, 4)