Encode/Decode AuthnRequestXML

[Day, Peter W]

Jim,

For debugging and tracing interactions with Shib IdP and SP, I find the following tools useful:


*         https://rnd.feide.no/simplesaml/module.php/saml2debug/debug.php  - Decodes into plain text xml a SAML2 request copied from a redirect or post. Can handle url & base64 encodings.

*         https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/saml-tracer/  - A tool for viewing SAML messages sent through the browser

Peter Day

From: users-bounces at shibboleth.net [mailto:users-bounces at shibboleth.net] On Behalf Of Jim Hoy
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 3:55 PM
To: Shib Users
Subject: Encode/Decode AuthnRequestXML

I'm trying to programmatically encode and decode AuthnRequest XML. Which technologies are used and what steps would I follow to do this? If I understand correctly, the typical process goes like this:

To encode:

1. Convert XML to byte stream
2. Compress the byte stream
3. Base64 encode the compressed stream
4. UrlEncode the Base64 string

To decode:

1. UrlDecode the string
2. Base64 Decode the UrlDecoded string
3. Decompress the Base64
4. Convert the byte stream to XML

When I try to decode the AuthnRequest that we are passing to an IDP, I don't get anything usable.  I've tried GZip and .Net's  DeflateStream.  Do I have the encoding and decoding process corrent?  What compression does shib use?  Is the XML signed with a cert?

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