1   Lasso PHP Binding Basics

Lasso functions are available from the Lasso PHP extension.

There are two ways to load this extension.

This first one is to add the line:

extension = lasso.so

in your php.ini configuration file, which can be found in something like /etc/php4/apache2/php.ini (if you're using apache2 and php4 on Debian, otherwise you may need to adapt the path to your local configuration).

The other way is to load it dynamically, like:

if (!extension_loaded('lasso')) {
    $prefix = (PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX == 'dll') ? 'php_' : '';
    dl($prefix . 'lasso.' . PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX);
}

You can easily include this code every time you need lasso.

The first thing to do is to call lasso_init(). Similarly, the last thing should be to call lasso_shutdown().

Once lasso_init() is called. The smallest and useless Lasso project will therefore be:

lasso_init();
print("Hello world.\n");
lasso_shutdown();

If your PHP code is used in HTML script environment, it could be difficult to call lasso_shutdown(), this is not mandatory.

2   Liberty and Lasso profiles

Lasso provides the necessary functions to implement Liberty Alliance profiles, as defined in the Liberty ID-FF Bindings and Profiles Specification. They are:

• Single Sign-On and Federation
• Name Registration
• Federation Termination Notification
• Single Logout
• Identity Provider Introduction
• Name Identifier Mapping
• Name Identifier Encryption

Each profile maps to a Lasso object such as LassoLogin, LassoLogout... Those are initialised with data known about identity and service providers, available in a LassoServer object.

The LassoServer object may be created as follows:

lasso_init();
$server = new LassoServer("sp-metadata.xml", "sp-private-key.pem",
                            NULL, "sp-crt.pem");
$server->addProvider(LASSO_PROVIDER_ROLE_IDP, "idp-metadata.xml",
                     "idp-public-key.pem", "ca-crt.pem");
lasso_shutdown();

• sp-metadata.xml is the Liberty metadata file for the service provider
• idp-metadata.xml is the Liberty metadata file for the identity provider
• sp-private-key.pem is the service provider private key; used to sign documents
• sp-crt.pem is the service provider certificate; sent inside signed documents
• idp-public-key.pem is the identity provider public key; used to verify signature in documents sent by the identity provider
• ca-crt.pem is the certificate of the certification authority used by the identity provider.

It is of course possible to have several calls to the addProvider method of an instantiated LassoServer object if there are more than one identity provider.

$dump = $server->dump();

$server = LassoServer::newFromDump($dump);

3   Liberty Metadata Files

They are descriptions of a provider containing providerID and various normative URLs:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<EntityDescriptor
    providerID="https://sp.example.com/" xmlns="urn:liberty:metadata:2003-08">
  <SPDescriptor>
    <SingleLogoutServiceURL>https://sp.example.com/singleLogout</SingleLogoutServiceURL>
    <SingleLogoutProtocolProfile>http://projectliberty.org/profiles/slo-idp-soap</SingleLogoutProtocolProfile>
    <SoapEndpoint>https://sp.example.com/soapEndpoint</SoapEndpoint>
    <AssertionConsumerServiceURL id="AssertionConsumerServiceURL1" isDefault="true">
      https://sp.example.com/assertionConsumer
    </AssertionConsumerServiceURL>
    <AuthnRequestsSigned>true</AuthnRequestsSigned>
  </SPDescriptor>
</EntityDescriptor>

Describe a service provider (with providerID https://sp.example.com) whose single logout service URL is https://sp.example.com/singleLogout. Refer to the Liberty Alliance specifications for details.

4   Single Sign-On and Federation Profile

As a first step the user points its browser to the service provider to the login URL; the service provider must then respond with an HTTP 302 Redirect response, pointing the user browser to the identity provider single sign on service.

$server is a instantiated LassoServer as seen earlier and $idpProviderId is a string with the identity provider Id (the string must match a providerID defined in the metadata file).

$lassoLogin = new LassoLogin($server);
$lassoLogin->initAuthnRequest($idpProviderId, LASSO_HTTP_METHOD_REDIRECT);
$lassoRequest = $lassoLogin->request;
$lassoRequest->NameIDPolicy = LASSO_LIB_NAMEID_POLICY_TYPE_FEDERATED;
$lassoRequest->consent = LASSO_LIB_CONSENT_OBTAINED;
$lassoRequest->ForceAuthn = 0;
$lassoRequest->IsPassive = 0;
$lassoRequest->relayState = "relay state";

$lassoLogin->buildAuthnRequestMsg();

You can now redirect the user to the URL defined in $lassoLogin->msgUrl; for example:

header("Location: ".$lassoLogin->msgUrl);

The user then logs in on the identity provider which ultimately redirects back to the service provider; to the assertion consumer URL. A SAML artifact is passed in the query parameter.

$lassoLogin = new LassoLogin($server);
$lassoLogin->initRequest($query_string, LASSO_HTTP_METHOD_REDIRECT);
$lassoLogin->buildRequestMsg();

The service provider must check this artifact using a SOAP request to the identity provider. The URL is $lassoLogin->msgUrl while the request is $lassoLogin->msgBody. The request must succeed with an HTTP 200 status code; let's consider its content is put in the $answer, the next statement would be:

$lassoLogin->processResponseMsg($answer);

The users are defined by a nameIdentifier (accessible through $lassoLogin->nameIdentifier). Those typically map to users and sessions in some database on the service provider. If existing; the session should probably contains a session_dump element and the user a identity_dump element. See Database Considerations below for more information.

It is now time to get them out of the database and apply them to the login object.

if ($session_dump != NULL) {
    $lassoLogin->setSessionFromDump($session_dump);
}
if ($identity_dump != NULL) {
    $lassoLogin->setIdentityFromDump($identity_dump);
}
$lassoLogin->acceptSso();

After lassoLogin->acceptSso() the session and the identity are updated (or created) and should then be saved. If the identity has not recognised by the service provider an account will probably have to be created on the service provider; this is a good opportunity to ask the user for more information.

You can get respective dumps like this:

if ($lassoLogin->isIdentityDirty) {
    $lassoIdentity = $lassoLogin->identity;
    $lassoIdentityDump = $lassoIdentity->dump();
}

if ($lassoLogin->isSessionDirty) {
    $lassoSession = $lassoLogin->session;
    $lassoSessionDump = $lassoSession->dump();
}

/* code to store $identity_dump and $session_dump */

A success web page can be displayed.

5   Single Logout Profile

There are different single logout profiles; some initiated on the identity provider, others initiated on the service provider, using either HTTP redirects or SOAP requests.

This part is about a logout using SOAP and initiated on the service provider.

$lassoLogout = new LassoLogout($server);

Identity and session dumps should be restored to prepare the logout request.

if ($session_dump != NULL) {
    $lassoLogout->setSessionFromDump($session_dump);
}
if ($identity_dump != NULL) {
    $lassoLogout->setIdentityFromDump($identity_dump);
}

$lassoLogout->initRequest($idpProviderId, LASSO_HTTP_METHOD_SOAP);
$lassoLogout->buildRequestMsg();

The service provider must then make a SOAP request to the identity provider; $msgUrl and $msgBody. You should then pass the answer to Lasso:

$lassoLogout->processResponseMsg($answer));

And save back session and user dump; the process is similar as the one at the end of the single sign on profile.

6   Proper Error Checking

Most Lasso functions raise PHP error (fatal) or warning (non-fatal).

It is strongly advised to code an user error handler:

function userErrorHandler($errno, $errmsg, $filename, $linenum, $vars) {
    print("No: ".$errno."  -  ".$errmsg." at ".$filename.", line: ".$linenum."\n");
}

and to set up the script to use it:

set_error_handler("userErrorHandler");

Most Lasso functions returns 0 on success and a negative number on failure. It is strongly advised to check this return code on each call. If the error raise a PHP warning, the code resume after the call to the error handler function.

$lrv = $lassoLogin->processResponseMsg($responseMsg);
if ($lrv > 0) {
    print("Lasso Error: ".$lrv."\n");
    /* handling error; most probably bailing out */
}

7   Database Considerations

Lasso has been designed to let the service provider keep on using existing databases. Typically there is already a table describing users; just add an identity dump column to the existing table:

Mapping between existing users and name identifiers sent by the identity provider can be done with a simple table.

Sessions are also commonly stored in databases; just add a session dump column to the existing session table:

Likewise sessions should be mapped to name identifiers.

8   API Reference

• LassoLogin
• LassoLogout
• LassoIdentity
• LassoServer
• LassoSession