What is a Service Provider (SP)?
Understanding the role of service providers (SPs) in identity management
A Service Provider (SP) is a website or application that offers services to users. This might be any type of SaaS program, including a B2B project management tool or a design platform.
If you're developing an app, the SP is you! (More particularly, your application). As the service provider, you are not required to verify users personally. Instead, you can rely on a trusted third party, known as an Identity Provider (IdP), to verify a user's identity. All your app has to do is validate the authentication replies it receives from the IdP before logging in users.
How do service providers and identity providers collaborate during SSO?
To support SSO, SPs and IdPs collaborate by transmitting authentication requests and user information back and forth. The SP transmits the authentication request to the IdP, which returns a token. This token includes identification data that indicates whether or not the user has been confirmed, how long the login will be valid, and other important identifying information such as a username and email address.
A single IdP can serve several SPs, allowing users to authenticate once with the IdP and obtain access to the associated applications. That is SSO in action.
This is feasible because to SSO protocols such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and OpenID Connect (OIDC), which specify how user data is structured and safeguarded throughout the login process. They provide a common language that IdPs and SPs may both comprehend.
Service provider-initiated SSO: How it works
As the name implies, SP-initiated SSO begins on the SP's side. With "Sign In With" identity providers such as Apple or Google, the SP often exposes a login button that, when clicked, takes the user to the IdP for authentication.
In most workplace contexts, the SP includes an input box where the user may enter their email address. After the user enters their email address, the SP detects which IdP (if any) they use and redirects them to it.
This is how it works:
- After clicking the login button, the app produces an authentication request and leads the user to the IdP.
- The IdP checks the user's identity and creates a token before redirecting the user back to the application.
- The app validates the answer: Is it coming from a trustworthy IdP? Was it tampered with? Does it state the user is authenticated?
- Once validated, it allows the user access.
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