Shibboleth:EBSCOhost implementation

Lech WojtowiczDirector of Software DevelopmentEBSCO Publishing 

Access 2003October 3, 2003

Overview

About EBSCO Publishing and EBSCOhost EBSCO’s involvement in Internet2 Current authentication methods Why Shibboleth Shibboleth implementation time-line EBSCOhost configuration Outstanding issues and future

About EBSCO Publishing

Part of EBSCO Information Services Provide information and tools to access information

online Primarily institutional market International customer base Began in 1986 with CD-ROMs and evolved to Web EBSCOhost at version 6.4, version 7.0 will release in

Fall

About EBSCOhost

Web based search and retrieval system Supporting:

50 full text databases 65 secondary databases Links to 12,000 e-journals Native interface and Z39.50 access

Internet network access from: UUnet Genuity Internet2 (Abilene Network)

About EBSCOhost, cont’d

Multi-tiered system: Windows 2000 with IIS on front lines EBSCOhost is an ASP Web application, XML is an internal

data format and protocol Several supporting services: Email, Transaction Logging,

Content Enhancements, Article Matching/Rights Checking Solaris and Linux back end tier for performing searches Multiple NFS servers used for data storage

About EBSCOhost, cont’d

Peak load: 25,000 simultaneous ASP sessions during peak time 200,000 searches peak hours, over 2 mln. searches a day 600,000 user logins per day 25 million ‘transactions’ per day 50% of outbound bandwidth is Internet2

EBSCO and Internet2

Most Internet2 members are EBSCO customers Many customers on affiliated network Recognized need for reliable high-speed connectivity (

http://loadrunner.uits.iu.edu/weathermaps/abilene) Became Corporate Member in Fall 2000 Initial connection via vBNS+ Spring 2002 became Collaborating site Current connection to Abilene are two T3’s

Current authentication methods

IP Address Username and password Referring URL Customer coordinated patron ID (library bar code) Pattern matching (patron ID) Athens Introducing Shibboleth...

IP Address

Mechanism IP address ranges recorded in EBSCOadmin Associated with customer and group

Shortcomings Multiple campuses with shared dynamic IPs may be a problem Remote access requires use of proxy server

Username/password

Mechanism In EBSCOadmin a given user group is associated with a

username and password User is prompted for username and password

Shortcomings Communication of usernames and passwords Not very secure as usernames tend to be “advertised” No incentive for a patron to not share

Referring URL

Mechanism Customer performs authentication Access to EBSCOhost is from secure page URL of secure page recorded in EBSCOadmin HTTP Referrer of request looked up

Shortcomings Assumes customer’s page is secure End user must access through library authentication system

Customer coordinated

Mechanism Customer uploads patron IDs (library bar code) to

EBSCOadmin Patron IDs can be associated with a specific user group User must enter valid patron ID to access

Shortcomings Link to EBSCOhost must include CustID Maintenance of patron ID

Pattern matching

Mechanism Customer enters pattern of patron ID Associates pattern with user group User prompted for patron ID to access Length and significant characters must match

Shortcomings Patron ID must follow a pattern Not very secure Maintenance: no easy way to “remove” a patron

Athens

Mechanism Access rights managed centrally in UK by Athens group Prompt for users Athens User ID and password (

http://search.epnet.com/athens.asp) Call to Athens server to validate and get institution code Institution code matched to account in EBSCOadmin

Shortcomings Management of users and rights in separate system from

institution

Why Shibboleth

EBSCO offers multiple services from different locations: EBSCOhost databases EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service (EJS) A-Z journal locator service LinkSource OpenURL resolver Redirect customers to publisher sites

Why Shibboleth, cont’d

Currently supporting multiple (independent) authentication options

Customers want seamless access between services Users want single login EBSCO needs to provide secure authentication to

meet expectations of data providers

Shibboleth project timeline

Mar 14/02 – initial contact by Steven Carmody Apr 4/02 – development initiated Apr 29/02 – DLF/CNI meeting: proof of concept in place and

demonstration of Shibboleth in action--- port of Shibboleth package to Win32 ---

Sep 12/02 – Win32 Shib Package available (Version 0.7) Sep 26/02 – EBSCO Pilot project completed; Scott Cantor

performs first real world test from Ohio State University to EBSCOhost

July 2003 – Shibboleth version 1.1 released with Win32 support Aug. 2003 – EBSCOhost Shibboleth Pilot project upgraded to use

version 1.1 (http://search.epnet.com/shib.asp)

EBSCOhost configuration

User’s Web browser:search.epnet.com/shib.asp

ExampleUniversity

Joe

AuthenticationServer (Win2000)

EBSCOhost

WAYF(Where Are You From)

Server

Internet21

SHAR (Service)

SHIRE (ISAPI filter)

1

2

2

University’sHandle Service

EBSCOAdminDatabase

AuthenticationSystem

AttributeAuthority

3

3

4

4

5

6

5

5

77

EBSCO

WebServers

Legend:1 - initial contact: http://search.epnet.com/shib.asp2 - contacting WAYF server for user’s affiliation3 - contacting University’s Handle Service for useridentification4 - user handle (opaque) returned to SHIRE, followedby SHAR requesting attributes (today affiliation)5 - validation by EBSCOadmin and match with UserGroup6 - redirecting the user to EBSCOhost system7 - direct communication of the user and EBSCOhost

Outstanding issues

Handling multiple ‘sites’ for an institution Example: OSU has 14 EBSCOhost accounts Associate originSiteID with customer account(s) in

EBSCOadmin If one originSiteID is associated with multiple customer

accounts, use entitlement for finer resolution Allow self administration EBSCO specific eduPerson entitlement:

urn:mace:ebsco.com:<EBSCO customer account>

Future proposal… use of attributes

type origin

SiteID

affiliation entitlement custID groupID

1. ubc n/a n/a ubc main

2.

ubc

staff@ubc.edu

student@ubc.edu

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

ubc

ubc

ubc

staff

student

main

3. {ubc} n/a ubcmed:main

ubc:staff

ubcmed

ubc

main

staff

1. originSiteID – single custID and groupID (majority of cases)

2. affiliation – single custID and multiple groupID (includes walk-ins)

3. entitlement – multiple custID

Observations

Development effort Implement ISAPI filter Supporting infrastructure inside EBSCOadmin

Administration effort Find appropriate contacts at institution Determine customer account to use and domains and

affiliation Set up mapping or allow customers establish this

Meets goal of single login for multi-site sessions

Future

Expand test to other EBSCO sites EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service LinkSource MetaPress

Work with major publishers to extend reach of seamless access

Handling multiple federations by accessing multiple WAYF servers, based on information from user