Shibboleth Service Provider - About
This page provides some basic details regarding the use of Shibboleth Service Providers in the Colorado State University System
Applicable to:
- CSU System, CSU Fort Collins, CSU Pueblo
- All: staff, students, faculty, associates
Contents
Shibboleth
Shibboleth is an open-source software package commonly used in higher education institutions and integrated within the InCommon federation. It serves as a federated identity solution, enabling secure access to web resources across multiple organizations while preserving user privacy. Developed specifically for the academic community, Shibboleth facilitates Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication, allowing developers to implement seamless and standardized access controls for their web applications within the federation.
The CSU System's institutions (CSU and CSU Pueblo) are members of the InCommon Federation, and full adopters of InCommon's Trusted Access Platform (TAP). The InCommon Trusted Access Platform is an identity and access management suite of software designed to integrate with existing systems. The software is packaged to simplify your installation and configuration so it’s easy for you to get started. The software suite includes:
- Shibboleth
- Grouper
- midPoint
- COmanage
Service Providers
Shibboleth is available as two types of applications: Service Provider (SP) and Identity Provider (IdP). The Shibboleth Service Provider functions as an application protective layer, ensuring secure access to your applications and web pages by enforcing authentication and optional attribute verification. You can customize your Shibboleth Service Provider to require not only authentication but also membership in specific departments, affiliations (such as student, staff, or faculty status), or a combination of various attributes. This flexibility allows IT admins to tailor the access experience while providing a consistent, dependable, and secure environment for your users. Shibboleth Service Providers are widely adopted across the CSU system, with nearly all departments and units implementing them.
System Requirements
Please be advised of the following requirements to maintain, install, or perform an update to a Shibboleth Service Provider in the CSU System:
- Administrative access (RDP or SSH)
- Networking is configured and working with a static IP address
- A unique hostname has been set for your system
- Correct time zone on OS
- Text editor installed
- e.g. notepad, notepad++ for Windows
- e.g. VI/VIM, nano for Linux
- Shibboleth [SP] System Requirements
Shibboleth Resources