SAML and enterprise federation, by ear

An entry-level tour of access management: why OIDC and SAML exist, and how scopes and protocol flows fit into single sign-on.

How the SAML protocol works, who built it and why, and how OpenID Connect later took over as the place where federation innovation happens.

Where identity federation sits inside the broader access management market, and how SSO, federation and authentication have merged into one product category.

The history behind SAML through the Liberty Alliance and Kantara, and why trust frameworks and federations mattered as much as the protocol itself.

The practical trade-offs between SAML and OpenID Connect for SaaS single sign-on, and what it takes to modernize older applications onto newer federation protocols.

How enterprise SAML and OIDC integrations went from months of custom work to hours, and how SCIM provisioning now pairs with federated SSO.

Why organizations are retiring AD FS as their on-premises SAML federation server, and the practical steps for moving that SSO to Microsoft Entra ID.

What partner-facing federation demands at scale: federating with thousands of organizations, delegated administration, federation assurance levels, and trusting external HR processes.

Explains why setting up enterprise SAML or OIDC federation and SCIM provisioning is slow and manual, and how OpenID FastFed aims to make it push-button.

How attackers test SAML service providers: signature exclusion, XML signature wrapping, XXE, XSLT injection and token recipient confusion, with real HackerOne reports.

How AD FS issues SAML tokens, how a Golden SAML attack forges those tokens, and how correlating signals across security products can detect it.

Explains how browser privacy changes to third-party cookies, iframes, and redirects affect federated login, and the classification problem of telling federation from tracking.