An Analysis of Open Standard Identity Protocols in Cloud Computing Security Paradigm

Nitin Naik, Paul Jenkins

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Cloud computing enables businesses to use computing resources on-demand anywhere in the world without having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in-house. This model involves multiple parties performing diverse operations via the Internet across multiple organisations. Employees and consumers can access resources and services from their own and associated organisations. Despite the success of cloud computing, its security paradigm has one major challenge: how to determine the identity and access rights of users across all the organisations. The user's credential and sensitive information are always stored and maintained by the parent organisation, however, other partner organisations require verification of the user's identity and access rights to allow them to access their services and resources. The biggest difficulty is to communicate the user's identity to their partner organisations without sending their sensitive information. Numerous open standard identity protocols have been introduced in the last two decades. Amongst all, three standard identity protocols Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), Open Authentication (OAuth), and OpenID Connect (OIDC) are the most established protocols in the cloud computing industry. Therefore, this paper presents a working prototype and critical analysis of these three open standard identity protocols SAML, OAuth and OIDC. It also explores evaluation criteria which are used for this analysis purpose. Finally, it discusses their strengths and limitations, and determines the most suitable open standard identity protocol for all types cloud computing models.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2016 IEEE 14th International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, DASC 2016, 2016 IEEE 14th International Conference on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, PICom 2016, 2016 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Big Data Intelligence and Computing, DataCom 2016 and 2016 IEEE Cyber Science and Technology Congress, CyberSciTech 2016, DASC-PICom-DataCom-CyberSciTech 2016
EditorsKevin I-Kai Wang, Qun Jin, Md Zakirul Alam Bhuiyan, Qingchen Zhang, Ching-Hsien Hsu
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages428-431
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781509040650
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Oct 2016
Externally publishedYes
Event14th IEEE International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, DASC 2016, 14th IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, PICom 2016, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Big Data Intelligence and Computing, DataCom 2016 and 2016 IEEE Cyber Science and Technology Congress, CyberSciTech 2016, DASC-PICom-DataCom-CyberSciTech 2016 - Auckland, New Zealand
Duration: 8 Aug 201610 Aug 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2016 IEEE 14th International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, DASC 2016, 2016 IEEE 14th International Conference on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, PICom 2016, 2016 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Big Data Intelligence and Computing, DataCom 2016 and 2016 IEEE Cyber Science and Technology Congress, CyberSciTech 2016, DASC-PICom-DataCom-CyberSciTech 2016

Conference

Conference14th IEEE International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, DASC 2016, 14th IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, PICom 2016, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Big Data Intelligence and Computing, DataCom 2016 and 2016 IEEE Cyber Science and Technology Congress, CyberSciTech 2016, DASC-PICom-DataCom-CyberSciTech 2016
Country/TerritoryNew Zealand
CityAuckland
Period8/08/1610/08/16

Keywords

  • Cloud Computing Security
  • IDaaS
  • OAuth
  • Open Standard Identity Protocols
  • OpenID Connect
  • SAML
  • SSO

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