Implementing security as a cross-cutting concern has several challenges. Consequently, the modern application development and service-oriented computing practices are alluding to the idea of claims-based identity implementation for access control. Microsoft's Identity and Access Control paradigm leverages the industry standard open specifications on claims-based security and provides the tools, the runtime, and the platform support for facilitating the development of the claims-enabled applications.
This book explores the real world scenarios on building claims-enabled .NET Framework applications using Windows Identity Foundation (WIF), Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 (AD FS 2.0), and Windows Azure Access Control Services 2.0 (ACS 2.0), the three most widely used products from Microsoft's Identity and Access Control stack.
Packed with more than 30 hands-on recipes, the book starts with introducing you to the world of claims-based identity in .NET Framework 4.0, and then moves on to demonstrate the capabilities of the runtime and the associated SDK. This includes the steps for performing identity delegation in ASP.NET MVC 3 applications, creating WCF security token services, extending the runtime to provide support for SAML 2.0 specifications, and using Windows Azure ACS as a trusted source for implementing access control. Further, the book dives deep into the relevant support extended in some of the server technologies of the ecosystem including Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Dynamics CRM 2011 and Sales Force. In addition, it also features a chapter on the newer capabilities of the runtime including support for claims in the Windows Server 8 and Windows 8 Metro style applications.
This book provides a mixture of recipes from basic to advance to enable the professional developers to implement claims-based identity in enterprise-wide scalable and interoperable applications.
Chapter 1, Overview of Claims-based Identity, introduces readers to the concept of claims-based identity, provides an overview of the Security Assertion Mark-up Language (SAML) specification, and gets them ready to start with the rest of the book.
Chapter 2, Programming with Windows Identity Foundation, introduces Windows Identity Foundation that is a .NET Framework runtime feature for building claims-based applications using Microsoft's Identity and Access Management paradigm. This chapter will cover aspects of programming claims in .NET applications using WIF with real world examples.
Chapter 3, Advanced Programming with Windows Identity Foundation, digs deep into the anatomy of Windows Identity Foundation and cover real world examples on building custom Security Token Service (STS) and extending the runtime to support SAML 2.0 profiles.
Chapter 4, Cloud-based Identity with Azure Access Control Service, introduces Azure Access Control Services 2.0 that provides cloud-based identity management solutions based on Microsoft's Identity and Access Management paradigm. This chapter will cover aspects of cloud-based authentication services and showcase recipes exploring claims-based identity with ACS 2.0 in the native mobile applications.
Chapter 5, Identity Management with Active Directory Federation Services, introduces AD FS 2.0 that provides federation services using the claims-based identity model on Active Directory users. This chapter covers the aspects of configuring a federation server using AD FS 2.0 and using it in conjunction with WIF and Azure ACS 2.0 to serve end-to-end security needs of an enterprise.
Chapter 6, Enterprise Server Interoperability with WIF, Azure ACS 2.0, and AD FS 2.0, focuses on enabling claims-based identity in some of the popular enterprise servers and cloud technologies from Microsoft including Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011, Windows Azure, and Microsoft Office 365. In addition, it also explores the steps to provision a seamless Single Sign-On experience in SalesForce with AD FS 2.0.
Chapter 7, Extension and Future of Windows Identity Foundation, provides a glimpse of the future of claims-based identity with Windows 8 and .NET Framework 4.5. In addition, you will learn about some of the enhancements in the WIF runtime to provide support for claims-based identity in Windows Workflow Foundation and enable the developers to leverage the latest SAML 2.0 specifications for building SP-Lite compliant applications.