The Entity Category Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Attribute Types
RFC 8409

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Independent Submission                                     I. Young, Ed.
Request for Comments: 8409                                   Independent
Category: Informational                                     L. Johansson
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                    SUNET
                                                               S. Cantor
                                                   Shibboleth Consortium
                                                             August 2018

     The Entity Category Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
                            Attribute Types

Abstract

   This document describes two SAML entity attributes: one that can be
   used to assign category membership semantics to an entity and another
   for use in claiming interoperation with or support for entities in
   such categories.

   This document is a product of the working group process of the
   Research and Education FEDerations (REFEDS) group.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
   RFC stream.  The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
   its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
   implementation or deployment.  Documents approved for publication by
   the RFC Editor are not candidates for any level of Internet Standard;
   see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8409.

Young, et al.                 Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 8409                     Entity Category                 August 2018

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. REFEDS Document Process ....................................3
   2. Notation and Conventions ........................................4
   3. Entity Category Attribute .......................................4
      3.1. Syntax .....................................................4
      3.2. Semantics ..................................................5
      3.3. Entity Category Example ....................................6
   4. Entity Category Support Attribute ...............................7
      4.1. Syntax .....................................................7
      4.2. Semantics ..................................................7
      4.3. Entity Category Support Example ............................9
   5. IANA Considerations .............................................9
   6. Security Considerations .........................................9
   7. References .....................................................11
      7.1. Normative References ......................................11
      7.2. Informative References ....................................11
   Acknowledgements ..................................................12
   Authors' Addresses ................................................12

Young, et al.                 Informational                     [Page 2]
RFC 8409                     Entity Category                 August 2018

1.  Introduction

   This document describes a SAML attribute called the "entity category
   attribute".  Values of this attribute represent entity types or
   categories.  When used with the SAML V2.0 Metadata Extension for
   Entity Attributes [SAML2MetadataAttr], each such entity category
   attribute value represents a claim that the entity thus labeled meets
   the requirements of, and is asserted to be a member of, the indicated
   category.

   These category membership claims MAY be used by a relying party to
   provision policy for release of attributes from an identity provider,
   to influence user interface decisions such as those related to
   identity provider discovery, or for any other purpose.  In general,
   the intended uses of any claim of membership in a given category will
   depend on the details of the category's definition and will often be
   included as part of that definition.

   Entity category attribute values are URIs.  Therefore, this document
   does not specify a controlled vocabulary for assigning such values;
   they may be defined by any appropriate authority without any
   requirement for central registration.  It is anticipated that other