Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
What is Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)?
Security Assertion Markup Language, or SAML, is an XML-based standard used to exchange authentication and authorization information between an identity provider and a service provider, most commonly to support single sign-on.
Examples
- An employee signs in once to the company's identity platform and is then able to open a cloud HR application without entering a second password because the application trusts the SAML assertion from the identity provider.
- A university uses SAML so students can access email, learning platforms, and library systems through one central login process.
Discover 🔎
People do not want to sign in separately to every business application they use, and organizations do not want every application storing its own disconnected set of usernames and passwords. That creates inconvenience for users and poor control for security teams.
SAML was created to solve that problem by letting one trusted system authenticate the user and then tell another system that the login already happened. The result is single sign-on. The application receives trusted identity information instead of collecting the password itself.
Summary 📝
SAML is an XML-based single sign-on standard that lets one trusted system authenticate the user and another trusted system accept that result. The identity provider performs the login, issues a signed assertion, and the service provider validates that assertion before creating a session. Its strength comes from centralizing authentication and reducing password sprawl, but its safety depends on strict trust configuration and careful assertion validation.
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