Shibboleth and uApprove at

University of Michigan

Luke Tracy – ltracy@umich.eduKen Hammer – khammer@umich.edu

What is uApprove?• Developed by SWITCHaai under BSD License

– http://www.switch.ch/aai/support/tools/uApprove.html

• Purposes:– For the user, mechanism to be informed about the

release of attributes to a Service Provider (SP).– For the admin of an Identity Provider (IdP)

• Provides a tool to implement data protection laws by requiring to obtain user consent before personal attributes are released to a SP

• Allows for collection of information about the release of attributes and accesses to SP (if configured to do so).

Source: http://www.switch.ch/aai/support/tools/uApprove.html on June 15, 2010.

What is uApprove?• From the user's point of view, uApprove is an

application which presents a webpage, on which to– accept or decline the Terms of Use of a Shibboleth Identity

Provider upon first access to the system (optional)– globally accept the release of attributes to any/all Service

Providers– accept the release of attributes upon first access to a given

Service Provider (if the global release has not been approved)

Note: User can reset attribute release consent on a separate webpage, such that he/she will be asked again, whenever attributes have to be released.

Source: http://www.switch.ch/aai/support/tools/uApprove.html on June 15, 2010.

U of M Attribute Release• InCommon IdP had been operating in Pilot

Mode– Opt-in required– Temporarily provided means to approve the

release of identity data

• To move beyond Pilot– Remove barriers– Make more self-describing

Governance Board• Investigated how others were handling privacy

concerns around attribute release– Found common desire existed to be able to have

individuals approve the release of attributes– Saw mention of uApprove being used within SWITCH

• Demonstrated uApprove to IDM Governance Board– Liked it, but had issues with changes to data and privacy

settings after approval to release– Looked into methods of detecting state changes and

forcing re-approval

uApprove• Determined best method was to prompt each

time (until a more elegant solution was possible, maybe)

• Discussed with uApprove developers method for forcing prompt every time– Decided together that in short term, using database

triggers was optimal

Demo

User Visits Site and Selects Home University

User Logs In Using Our Single Sign On Tool

User is presented with the uApprove screen

If the user declines…

If the user approves…

uApprove configuration• Can use a flat file or a mysql database for

preferences• Can be disabled on a per-SP basis• Can configure which attributes are displayed

and in what order• Optional “Terms of Use” screen• Multiple options for resetting preferences

Normally, uApprove looks like this…

• Presentation controlled by .jsp templates

• Template text strings stored separately to make translation easy

U-M localizations• Database trigger / cron job

combination to effect our desired login behavior

• Applied our SSO “skin” to the application

• Changed text to better suit our audience

attribute-resolver.xml <resolver:AttributeDefinition id="displayName" xsi:type="Simple"

xmlns="urn:mace:shibboleth:2.0:resolver:ad"

sourceAttributeID="displayName">

<resolver:Dependency ref="mcomm" />

<resolver:DisplayName xml:lang="en">Full Name</resolver:DisplayName>

<resolver:DisplayDescription xml:lang="en">

This is your full name.

</resolver:DisplayDescription>

...

</resolver:AttributeDefinition>

resources• uApprove -

http://www.switch.ch/aai/support/tools/uApprove.html

• U-M InCommon Attribute Release Policy and Procedure - http://www.itd.umich.edu/itcsdocs/r1465/