SAML vs. OpenID (OIDC): What's the Difference?

foreign open ID connect and saml are both used for single sign-on or SSO and the sign in process is similar however there are distinct technical differences to assess before you begin your project saml allows an identity provider or IDP to securely Federate identity for authentication and authorization into web apps saml can be more difficult for service providers or SPS to implement and some even charge for it it requires XML schemas to transmit user information that aspect can be very granular for managing access control and permissions but it also adds some complexity that's where openid comes in it can be simpler for SPS to implement because it's lightweight and high performance it's only focused on authentication that makes it a popular choice for managing sign inflows and assertions for mobile applications samla is a widely used mature SSO protocol passwords aren't sent over the wire or stored with SPS it signs users in with one set of credentials but also can authorize access to resources between the IDP and the SP XML documents transmit assertions about the user who they are and how that information was issued web browsers help to make this happen and saml is always going to be used for websites openid is based on the oauth 2.0 standard and works a bit differently users are redirected from the relying party RP to the open ID provider op as opposed to idps and SPS there are direct calls between the RP and op using rest and Json message flows that are accessible using apis ID tokens transmit information or claims about the user versus it being contained in saml's XML documents claims are open IDs equivalent to saml assertions the difference in how identity information is released between the protocols means that open ID can be used for both websites and applications both saml and open ID are authentication protocols and it's not a binary choice they can be used in combination with other authentication standards depending on the use case for example a subject matter expert within the healthcare industry would use saml for secure application portal access but a mobile app would benefit from the efficiencies of open ID the choice comes down to your technical requirements what applications your organization is using and the resources that are available to implement SSO jumpcloud offers both saml and open ID configurations for SSO implementation as well as pre-built and custom connectors learn more at the link in the description below

Channel: JumpCloud

Views: 30,088

Keywords: jumpcloud, SAML, OpenID Connect (OIDC), single sign-on (SSO), Security Assertion Markup Language, enterprise SSO

Id: A7GVeqFvqFM

Length: 2min 49sec (169 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023