SAML and REST Token Size

Question

We are implementing STS (claims-based authentication) for REST-based services. One of the many reasons when we decided to create REST services (with JSON) was the small footprint above the wire. With STS, a multi-statement SAML token requires a SAML size of a few kilobytes. For most REST calls, where we do not return a list of objects, the response size is small by 100 bytes, and for these calls this token seems too much overhead. How do you deal with this in your projects?

Answer 1

You can use SAML tokens with REST endpoints, but most often you will find people using Simple Web Tokens (SWT). Smaller, easier, etc.

ACS (Access Control Service in Windows Azure PLatform) implements this, for example.

Answer 2

... Or JWT (JSon Web Token). ACS also supports them. Check out this article: JSON Web Token Handler for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 Here is an example of using this library with .Net 4.5, which issues and verifies a JWT signed using the HMAC SHA256 based on a symmetric key.

string jwtIssuer = "MyIssuer";
string jwtAudience = "MyAudience";

// Generate symmetric key for HMAC-SHA256 signature
RNGCryptoServiceProvider cryptoProvider = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider();
byte[] keyForHmacSha256 = new byte[64];
cryptoProvider.GetNonZeroBytes(keyForHmacSha256);

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Create signing credentials for the signed JWT.
// This object is used to cryptographically sign the JWT by the issuer.
SigningCredentials sc = new SigningCredentials(
                                new InMemorySymmetricSecurityKey(keyForHmacSha256),
                                "http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmldsig-more#hmac-sha256",
                                "http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#sha256");

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Create token validation parameters for the signed JWT
// This object will be used to verify the cryptographic signature of the received JWT
TokenValidationParameters validationParams =
    new TokenValidationParameters()
    {
        AllowedAudience = s_jwtAudience,
        ValidIssuer = s_jwtIssuer,
        ValidateExpiration = true,
        ValidateNotBefore = true,
        ValidateIssuer = true,
        ValidateSignature = true,
        SigningToken = new BinarySecretSecurityToken(keyForHmacSha256),
    };

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Create JWT handler
// This object is used to write/sign/decode/validate JWTs
JWTSecurityTokenHandler jwtHandler = new JWTSecurityTokenHandler();

// Create a simple JWT claim set
IList<Claim> payloadClaims = new List<Claim>() { new Claim("clm1", "clm1 value"), };

// Create a JWT with signing credentials and lifetime of 12 hours
JWTSecurityToken jwt =
    new JWTSecurityToken(jwtIssuer, jwtAudience, payloadClaims, sc, DateTime.UtcNow, DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(12.0));

// Serialize the JWT
// This is how our JWT looks on the wire: <Base64UrlEncoded header>.<Base64UrlEncoded body>.<signature>
string jwtOnTheWire = jwtHandler.WriteToken(jwt);

// Validate the token signature (we provide the shared symmetric key in `validationParams`)
// This will throw if the signature does not validate
jwtHandler.ValidateToken(jwtOnTheWire, validationParams);

// Parse JWT from the Base64UrlEncoded wire form (<Base64UrlEncoded header>.<Base64UrlEncoded body>.<signature>)
JWTSecurityToken parsedJwt = jwtHandler.ReadToken(jwtOnTheWire) as JWTSecurityToken;