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ExamsCAS-003Questions#404
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CAS-003 · Question #404

CAS-003 Question #404: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

The correct answer is A: The application only supports SP-initiated authentication.. SAML 2.0 supports two authentication flows: (1) IdP-initiated - the user logs into the IdP first and is redirected to the application with a SAML assertion, and (2) SP-initiated - the user navigates to the Service Provider (application) first, the SP redirects the user to the IdP

Question

A security engineer is deploying an IdP to broker authentication between applications. These applications all utilize SAML 2.0 for authentication. Users log into the IdP with their credentials and are given a list of applications they may access. One of the application's authentications is not functional when a user initiates an authentication attempt from the IdP. The engineer modifies the configuration so users browse to the application first, which corrects the issue. Which of the following BEST describes the root cause?

Options

  • AThe application only supports SP-initiated authentication.
  • BThe IdP only supports SAML 1.0
  • CThere is an SSL certificate mismatch between the IdP and the SaaS application.
  • DThe user is not provisioned correctly on the IdP.

Explanation

SAML 2.0 supports two authentication flows: (1) IdP-initiated - the user logs into the IdP first and is redirected to the application with a SAML assertion, and (2) SP-initiated - the user navigates to the Service Provider (application) first, the SP redirects the user to the IdP for authentication, then the IdP sends the assertion back to the SP. When authentication fails if started at the IdP but succeeds when the user browses to the application first, this is a textbook symptom of the application only supporting SP-initiated flow. The fix of redirecting users to the application first is the correct workaround. Option B is wrong because the scenario states SAML 2.0 is in use. Option C (SSL mismatch) would cause errors in both flows. Option D (user provisioning) would also fail in both directions.

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