DACS_SIGNOUT(8)

Name
dacs_signout - DACS signout service

Synopsis

dacs_signout [dacsoptions[1]]

DESCRIPTION

This web service is part of the DACS suite.

The dacs_signout web service is invoked from a web browser to cause one or more sets of DACS credentials for the current federation[2], stored as HTTP cookies, to be removed from the browser. This is done by replacing one or more existing cookies with cookies that have expired. The effect is that the user agent signs out (logs off) identities previously obtained through dacs_authenticate(8)[3] or any other DACS authentication method. A DACS-enabled portal will typically provide users with a link or web page form to invoke this service.

By default, all credentials are removed, but credentials can be selected for deletion based on a particular username (who the user was authenticated as) or a particular jurisdiction (the jurisdiction that performed that authentication).

Should copies of the selected credentials exist outside of the browser, they may still be valid; only the browser's copies are destroyed.

The SIGNOUT_HANDLER[4] directive can optionally be used to specify where the user should be redirected before this service terminates, provided FORMAT does not select a variety of XML output (see dacs.conf(5)[5]). If XML output is selected, a document conforming to dacs_current_credentials.dtd[6] is returned.

Explicitly signing off using this web service is generally unnecessary because DACS credentials will either become invalid when their lifetime is reached (see AUTH_CREDENTIALS_DEFAULT_LIFETIME_SECS[7]) or will be automatically deleted when the user's browser session terminates (or a session with a trusted servlet ends). A user can also sign off by deleting his browser's DACS cookies. Middleware can simply discard cookies.

As DACS credentials are relative to a particular federation of DACS servers, only those credentials that are associated with the federation of the DACS server that receives the service request will be affected by this service. This implies that a user who wants to explicitly sign out must do so for each federation in which he or she is currently authenticated.

  Web Service Arguments

In addition to the standard CGI arguments[8], dacs_signout understands the following CGI arguments:

DACS_USERNAME
    If present, all credentials associated with this username will be deleted. If not provided, the username in the credentials is immaterial.

DACS_JURISDICTION
    If present, all credentials associated with this jurisdiction (given as its JURISDICTION_NAME[9]) will be deleted. If not provided, the jurisdiction in the credentials is immaterial.

COOKIE_SYNTAX
    This optional parameter is as described for the dacs_authenticate(8)[3] service.

The optional parameters are used to delete only those credentials that match a particular username or jurisdiction (or both). If neither parameter is specified in the service request, all DACS cookies associated with the federation that receives the service request will be deleted.

The name matching method can be configured through the NAME_COMPARE[10] directive.

    Note

    DACS does not currently provide an inactivity timeout feature, but it may appear in a future release. One way to add it would be to take advantage of the user tracking[11] capability, which can record all of a user's requests for DACS-wrapped services within a federation. By simply comparing the current time with the time stamp of the user's last service request, the user's idle time can be determined. If the idle time exceeds a configured maximum, dacs_acs(8)[12] would consider the user's credentials to be invalid (effectively expired) and take appropriate action. A straightforward implementation would be a relatively simple enhancement to DACS; its main drawback, for those that enable it, is the extra performance hit incurred from user tracking and having to compute idle time during access control processing - whether this hit is significant will depend on your platforms, the configuration of your federation, and user activity patterns.

EXAMPLES

To signout from all identities in the EXAMPLE federation, a user would simply invoke a URL like:

    https://dss.example.com/cgi-bin/dacs/dacs_signout

To signout only from the identity EXAMPLE::FEDROOT:bobo, a URL like the following might be invoked:

    https://fedroot.example.com/cgi-bin/dacs/dacs_signout?\
    DACS_USERNAME=bobo&DACS_JURISDICTION=FEDROOT

To signout from only those identities in the EXAMPLE federation having a username component bobo, invoke a URL like:

    https://fedroot.example.com/cgi-bin/dacs/dacs_signout?DACS_USERNAME=bobo

This would signoff from EXAMPLE::FEDROOT:bobo and EXAMPLE::DSS:bobo, for instance.

DIAGNOSTICS

The program exits 0 if everything was fine, 1 if an error occurred.

SEE ALSO

dacs_authenticate(8)[3], dacs_current_credentials(8)[13], dacs_auth_agent(8)[14], dacs_auth_transfer(8)[15], dacs_select_credentials(8)[16], dacsauth(1)[17], dacscred(1)[18]

The DACS distribution includes an example of a "log off" web page: html/examples/signout.html[19].

AUTHOR

Distributed Systems Software (www.dss.ca[20])

COPYING

Copyright © 2003-2012 Distributed Systems Software. See the LICENSE[21] file that accompanies the distribution for licensing information.

Notes

1.  dacsoptions
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html#dacsoptions

2.  current federation
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html#current_federation

3.  dacs_authenticate(8)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_authenticate.8.html

4.  SIGNOUT_HANDLER
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#SIGNOUT_HANDLER

5.  dacs.conf(5)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html

6.  dacs_current_credentials.dtd
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/../dtd-xsd/dacs_current_credentials.dtd

7.  AUTH_CREDENTIALS_DEFAULT_LIFETIME_SECS
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#AUTH_CREDENTIALS_DEFAULT_LIFETIME_SECS

8.  standard CGI arguments
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.services.8.html#standard_cgi_args

9.  JURISDICTION_NAME
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#JURISDICTION_NAME

10. NAME_COMPARE
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#NAME_COMPARE

11. user tracking
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html#tracking_user_activity

12. dacs_acs(8)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_acs.8.html

13. dacs_current_credentials(8)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_current_credentials.8.html

14. dacs_auth_agent(8)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_auth_agent.8.html

15. dacs_auth_transfer(8)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_auth_transfer.8.html

16. dacs_select_credentials(8)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_select_credentials.8.html

17. dacsauth(1)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacsauth.1.html

18. dacscred(1)
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacscred.1.html

19. html/examples/signout.html
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man//examples/signout.html

20. www.dss.ca
    http://www.dss.ca

21. LICENSE
    http://dacs.dss.ca/man/../misc/LICENSE