ACOnet operates the ACOnet OpenIDP, a self-service SAML Identity Provider for members and guests of ACOnet participants, with the entityID (i.e., globally unique name) of https://openidp.aco.net/saml
. This service is open to everyone needing to access federated resources from eduID.at members who is lacking credentials at a SAML IDP known to the relevant service.
The prime purpose of the ACOnet OpenIDP is to allow eduID.at Service Providers to offer their resource to their whole intended community, whether or not all members of that community are affiliated with an institution that operates a SAML Identity Provider within eduID.at. This obviates the need for service owners to also implement local or alternative authentication methods within their resource (which usually lead to password management and "password/username/email address forgotten" support issues at the service), in addition to federated access via SAML. As such the ACOnet OpenIDP is part of the eduID.at Metadata, together with all other Identity Providers within eduID.at.
Attributes sent by the ACOnet OpenIDP
Subjects may enter any profile data they want during the account registration phase, so relying on any of the data provided should only be done with caution!
The following attributes will be issued by the OpenIDP to any Service Provider known to it (i.e., all eduID.at Service Providers):
Friendly name | Formal attribute name | Description |
---|---|---|
givenName | urn:oid:2.5.4.42 | First name |
sn | urn:oid:2.5.4.4 | Last name |
displayName | urn:oid:2.16.840.1.113730.3.1.241 | "Firstname Lastname" (without the quotes) |
urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.3 | The email address used for verification emails during account creation | |
eduPersonPrincipalName | urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.5923.1.1.1.6 | Always of the form [a-z0-9]{7}@openidp.aco.net , i.e. seven (random) lower-case characters and/or digits + "@openidp.aco.net ".The string is "random" only during account creation; after that the created eduPersonPrincipalName value will not change for a given registration. Also, eduPersonPrincipalName values will not be re-used or re-assigned from one person to another at the OpenIDP. |
urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.5923.1.1.1.7 |
|
Services known to accept ACOnet OpenIDP identities
These services are known to externalize their guest credentials management to the ACOnet OpenIDP, so they don't have to manage, keep secure and support passwords themselfs:
USI-Wien Kursanmeldung: The University Sports Institute (USI) at Vienna University implements online registration for its many sports courses via eduID.at. Since not all Austrian institutions whose members are eligible for USI courses currently participate in ACOnet or eduID.at subjects from such institutions can register an account at OpenIDP once, and use that for online registration at USI as long as desired.u:book is a federated service by University of Vienna allowing members of participating academic institutions in Austria to buy things and services at participating online stores.Training Courses by the Computer Center and Human Resources Development departments at the University of Vienna. Some of these courses are open to the general public and so need a method to authenticate people outside the eduID.at membership (or even outside the ACOnet constituency) in order to register for courses online. Authorization in these cases usually happens by payment of the course fee, so (self-asserted) attributes or identity vetting are not an issue.