Cached Security Token Identity Claim Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Security tokens, such as SAML tokens, are expensive to create and can become large during interactive sessions in web-based systems, leading to inefficiencies in authentication and authorization processes.
Innovation Solution
A security token service generates a security token with an identity claim, which is smaller and more efficient, and stores the full token in memory. Instead of passing the full token, the identity claim is returned to the client, allowing the client to access the full token upon request, reducing data transfer and processing overhead.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the full security token is passed to the client for each request, then the client can access all claims and perform complete authorization, but the data transfer size increases and processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The security token is segmented into two parts: a small identity claim that is passed to the client for each request, and a full security token that is stored in the service's memory. The identity claim contains only the essential identifier information, while the complete token with all claims remains stored and can be retrieved when needed for authorization decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The service acts as an intermediary between the client and the full security token. The client receives and uses the identity claim as if it were the full token, but the service mediates by retrieving the complete token from memory when authorization checks are needed, thus bridging the gap between minimal data transfer and complete authorization capability.
2Reliability
If the full security token is stored and transmitted for each request, then all claims are available for authorization, but the processing overhead and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The full security token is retrieved from the service's memory in advance when needed, rather than transmitting it with each request. The service pre-loads the complete token into memory after initial authentication, so that when authorization checks are required, the full token is already available for immediate processing without repeated transmission costs.
3Length of moving object
If the identity claim is used instead of the full security token, then data transfer is reduced, but the client needs to access the full token from service memory
Solution Approach 1:
A simplified copy of the security token (the identity claim) is created and passed to the client instead of the full token. This copy contains only the essential identifier information needed for the client to make requests, while the complete token remains stored in the service's memory as the original master copy.
Data Source
AI summary
A security token service generates a security token for a user that is associated with a client and stores the full security token within a memory. The security token includes an identity claim that represents the identity of the generated security token. Instead of passing the entire security token back to the client, the identity claim is returned to the client. For each request the client makes to the service, the client passes the identity claim in the request instead of the full security token having all of the claims. The identity claim is much smaller then the full security token. When a computing device receives the identity claim within the request from the user, the identity claim is used to access the full security token that is stored in memory.