A federated authentication schema among multiple identity providers.

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Security
• Distributed Systems

Background:

• Single Sign-On (SSO) simplifies user authentication across multiple web systems, relying on institutional Identity Providers (IdPs).
• Integrating multiple institutions with distinct IdPs presents challenges for seamless cross-application authentication.
• Centralizing authentication is problematic for dynamic groups and raises concerns about trust and responsibility among peers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a new architecture for federated authentication suitable for multi-institutional collaboration.
• To address the limitations of traditional SSO in dynamic, cooperative environments.
• To ensure user attribute isolation between a central service and institutional SSO systems.

Main Methods:

• Development of a trusted third-party service architecture for authentication.
• Implementation and validation of the architecture within the EHDEN Portal ecosystem.
• Establishment of a federated authentication schema to manage cross-institutional access.

Main Results:

• Successful validation of the proposed architecture in a real-world multi-institutional project (EHDEN Portal).
• Demonstration of secure authentication across different entities while maintaining user attribute isolation.
• Facilitation of a federated authentication schema for dynamic and cooperative environments.

Conclusions:

• The proposed architecture effectively enables federated authentication for multiple institutions.
• This approach overcomes the challenges of traditional SSO in complex, collaborative ecosystems.
• The solution provides a scalable and secure method for cross-institutional user authentication.