CompTIA Cloud+ (CV0-004)SecurityMedium
A cloud security engineer is configuring an identity and access management (IAM) solution for a new cloud application. The application needs to authenticate users from multiple different organizations, each with its own existing identity provider (IdP). The goal is to allow users to use their existing corporate credentials to access the cloud application without creating new accounts in the cloud provider's IAM system. Which protocol is most commonly used to achieve this federated identity management?
- ALDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
- BRADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service)
- COAuth (Open Authorization)
- DSAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is an XML-based standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between an identity provider and a service provider, making it ideal for federated single sign-on (SSO) across different organizations.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. LDAP is a protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services, typically used for internal user directories, not cross-organizational federation.
- B. RADIUS is a networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) management for users connecting to a network service, not for federated identity across organizations.
- C. OAuth is an authorization framework that allows a third-party application to obtain limited access to a user's resources on an HTTP service, primarily for authorization delegation, not authentication federation.
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)
An XML-based open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between an identity provider (IdP) and a service provider (SP). It enables federated single sign-on (SSO).
- Uses XML for assertions.
- Enables cross-domain SSO.
- Widely used for enterprise federation.
Memory trick: SAML Saves All My Login Logistics.