Cross-Enterprise Security and Privacy Authorization (XSPA) Profile of SAML v2.0 for Healthcare Version 2.0
Committee Specification 01
23 April 2019
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Technical Committee:
OASIS Cross-Enterprise Security and Privacy Authorization (XSPA) TC
Chairs:
Mohammad Jafari (mohammad.jafari@bookzurman.com), Veterans Health Administration
Christopher Shawn (christopher.shawn2@va.gov), Veterans Health Administration
Editors:
John M. Davis (mike.davis@va.gov), Veterans Health Administration
Duane DeCouteau (ddecouteau@edmondsci.com), Veterans Health Administration
Mohammad Jafari (mohammad.jafari@bookzurman.com), Veterans Health Administration
This specification replaces or supersedes:
This specification is related to the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) V2.0, comprised of the following documents:
Declared XML namespaces:
Abstract:
This profile defines a set of SAML attributes and corresponding vocabularies for healthcare information exchange applications.
Status:
This document was last revised or approved by the OASIS Cross-Enterprise Security and Privacy Authorization (XSPA) TC on the above date. The level of approval is also listed above. Check the “Latest version” location noted above for possible later revisions of this document. Any other numbered Versions and other technical work produced by the Technical Committee (TC) are listed at https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=xspa#technical.
TC members should send comments on this specification to the TC’s email list. Others should send comments to the TC’s public comment list, after subscribing to it by following the instructions at the “Send A Comment” button on the TC’s web page at https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xspa/.
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Note that any machine-readable content (Computer Language Definitions) declared Normative for this Work Product is provided in separate plain text files. In the event of a discrepancy between any such plain text file and display content in the Work Product's prose narrative document(s), the content in the separate plain text file prevails.
Citation format:
When referencing this specification the following citation format should be used:
[SAML-XSPA-v2.0]
Cross-Enterprise Security and Privacy Authorization (XSPA) Profile of SAML v2.0 for Healthcare Version 2.0. Edited by John M. Davis, Duane DeCouteau, and Mohammad Jafari. 23 April 2019. OASIS Committee Specification 01. https://docs.oasis-open.org/xspa/saml-xspa/v2.0/cs01/saml-xspa-v2.0-cs01.html. Latest version: https://docs.oasis-open.org/xspa/saml-xspa/v2.0/saml-xspa-v2.0.html.
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Table of Contents
2.3 The Trust Handshake Use-Case
2.4.1 Service Consumer Access Control Service
2.4.2 Service Provider Access Control Service
2.4.3 Security and Privacy Policies
3.1.1.2 Complex Attribute Encoding
3.3 Attribute Naming Syntax, Restrictions and Acceptable Values
3.4 Attribute Rules of Equality
This profile defines a set of SAML attributes and the corresponding vocabularies for healthcare information exchange applications.
This specification is provided under the RF on Limited Terms Mode of the OASIS IPR Policy, the mode chosen when the Technical Committee was established. For information on whether any patents have been disclosed that may be essential to implementing this specification, and any offers of patent licensing terms, please refer to the Intellectual Property Rights section of the TC's web page (https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xspa/ipr.php).
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
The following definitions establish additional terminology and usage in this profile:
Access Control Service (ACS)
A service that provides the basic operational aspects of access control such as making access control decision information (ADI) available to access decision components and performing access control functions [HL7-SLS: Appendix A. Glossary of Terms]. This service would be utilized by both the Service Provider and Service Consumer.
Functional Role
Functional roles are roles that are bound to the realization/performance of actions, such as Authorizer. [ ISO/TS 21298:2008: 5.5 Functional Roles].
Permission
An approval to perform an operation on one or more protected resources [ANSI-INCITS 359-2004: 4. Terms and Definitions].
Principal
An entity whose identity can be authenticated. Examples include a human user, a process, a system, or an organization [ITUT-X.811: 3.15. Principal].
Structural Role
Structural roles (also referred to as Organizational Roles) correspond to human or organizational categories and describe prerequisites, feasibilities, or competences for actions, for example Dental Assistant. Structural roles differ from policy domain to policy domain, within and across organizational boundaries, and especially between different jurisdictions and countries. [ISO/TS 21298:2008: 5.3 Structural Roles].
Service Consumer (SC)
An individual entity, such as on an Electronic Health Record (EHR) or personal health record (PHR) System which makes a service request of a Service Provider.
Service Provider (SP)
A system, such as an Electronic Health Record System at a hospital, which provides protected resources and relies on the provided security service [HL7-SLS: Appendix A. Glossary of Terms].
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels”, BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.
[ANSI-INCITS 359-2004] ANSI-INCITS 359-2004 Role-Based Access Control. 2004.
[ASTM E1986-09(2013)] ASTM International, Standard Guide for Information Access Privileges to Health Information, DOI: 10.1520/E1986-09R13, 2013.
[SAML] “Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) v2.0”, OASIS Standard, 15 March 2005. http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-core-2.0-os.pdf
[SAML-PROF] “Profiles for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language, v2.0,” March 2005, OASIS Standard. http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-profiles-2.0-os.pdf
[SAML-SUB-ID] “SAML V2.0 Subject Identifier Attributes Profile Version 1.0,” September 2018, OASIS Committee Specification Draft. http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml-subject-id-attr/v1.0/saml-subject-id-attr-v1.0.html
[HL7-HCS] HL7 Security Technical Committee, HL7 Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System (HCS) Release 1, August 2014. http://www.hl7.org/implement/standards/product_brief.cfm?product_id=345
[ISO 21090:2011] International Organization for Standardization, ISO 21090, Health Informatics-- Harmonized Data Types for Information Interchange, 2011.
[ISO/TS 21298:2008] International Organization for Standardization, ISO/TS 21298, Health Informatics-- Functional and Structural Roles, 2008.
[HL7-PERM] HL7 Security Technical Committee, HL7 Version 3 Standard: Role-based Access Control Healthcare Permission Catalog, Release 2, February 2010. http://www.hl7.org/implement/standards/product_brief.cfm?product_id=72
[HL7-SLS] HL7 Version 3 Standard: Privacy, Access and Security Services Conceptual Model; Security Labeling Service, Release 1:2014. http://www.hl7.org/implement/standards/product_brief.cfm?product_id=360
[HL7-Vocab] HL7 Vocabulary Working Group, HL7 Vocabulary, Version: 1422-201812, December 2018.
[ITUT-X.811] ITU-T Recommendation X.811, Information Technology, Open Systems Interconnection, Security Framework for Open Systems, Authentication Framework, April 1995.
[NIST-800-63-1] National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publication 800-63-1, Electronic Authentication Guideline, December 2011. http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-63-1/SP-800-63-1.pdf
[XACML-V3.0] eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) Version 3.0. 22 January 2013. OASIS Standard. http://docs.oasis-open.org/xacml/3.0/xacml-3.0-core-spec-os-en.html
[HL7-Core-Schema-v3] HL7 International's Version 3 Normative Edition 2013, Processable Content, Core Schemas, ISO 21090 HL7 R2 Data Types, May 2013.
[HL7-FHIR] HL7, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, STU; v3.0.1, April 2017, http://hl7.org/fhir
[NHIN-V3] Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), Authorization Framework, Version 3.0, July 2011. https://sequoiaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/nhin-authorization-framework-production-specification-v3.0.pdf
[OpenID-Connect] N. Sakimura, J. Bradley, et. al., OpenID Connect Core 1.0 incorporating errata set 1, https://openid.net/specs/openid-connect-core-1_0.html
[JSON] T. Bray, The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format, https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7159
{non-normative}
The core use-cases for this profile are the cross-enterprise exchange of protected data objects from a Service Provider (SP) to a Service Consumer (SC) as depicted in Figure 1. Aside from this core use-case, there is also a use-case for establishing trust between two exchange partners as a precursor for future exchanges. Both of these use-cases and their variations, as well as the main entities and actors in Figure 1 will be discussed in the rest of this section.
There are a number of variations of the main exchange use-cases. In the Pull scenario, the SC sends a request to the SP asking for a data object (a Read command). In the Push Scenario, the SC sends a request to the SP which includes some data object to be accepted by the SP (a Create or Update command). In some cases, the request may include only a command and no data (a Delete or Execute command). The event flow for processing such requests is similar to that of Push. Another variation is the Publish/Subscribe use-case in which the SC sends a Subscription request and over time, receives a number of responses from SP.
In all of the above scenarios, the request includes SAML attribute assertions that vouch for the identity of the requesting Principal as well as other attribute consequential in making access control decisions at the SP’s side. Some examples of such attributes are SC’s organization identifier or the purpose of use for the transaction.
In the Pull and Subscription scenarios, these attributes are used by the SP’s ACS to make the decision whether or not the requesting Principal is authorized to receive a copy of the requested data. In the Push scenario, these attributes are used by the SP’s ACS to decide whether or not the requesting Principal is authorized to add new data to the SP, update existing data, or run a command such as Delete. These attributes may also vouch for the identity used to sign the submitted data object. The presented attributes are also used by the SP to record audit information about the transaction.
In the Pull and Subscription scenarios, the SP’s response includes the requested data, if the request is authorized, or otherwise, a signaling rejection message. In the Push scenario, the SP’s response includes the signaling message indicating whether or not the request was accepted by the SP.
In addition to the above cases, the attribute defined in this profile may also be used in other contexts; for example, in the Subscription scenario, the SP may include SAML Assertions in its response to vouch for some of SP’s identity as the signer of the data objects sent to the SC so that the SC can ensure the authenticity of the data it receives.
Figure 1: The main event flow in the XSPA use case.
The main scenario for Pull is as follows
· The SC initiates a request to access a protected resource residing at the SP.
· If the initiator is a human user, the SC’s ACS performs authorization to ensure it is authorized to make such a request. This transaction is outside the scope of this profile.
· The SC sends a request to its ACS, or another trusted Identity Provider, to receive Identity and Authorization Attribute Assertions corresponding to the request, the organization, and the context of the transaction, e.g. purpose of use.
· The SC requests the protected data objects from the SP; the request includes the Identity Assertions and other Authorization Attributes.
· The SP captures the request and calls its own ACS.
· If SP’s ACS deems the request authorized, the SP sends a the requested data objects to the SC. This copy is not necessarily identical to the original data; it may be annotated with security labels and handling instructions and/or some portions of it may be redacted or masked depending on the policies.
The Pull use-case may have some variations.
· Notification-Based Subscription: In a SP-side subscription service, the SC can register with a Subscription Broker at the SP’s side to receive a fresh copy of some data objects whenever these data objects are updated. This is equivalent to sending a Pull request and receiving multiple responses.
The main scenario for Push is as follows:
· The SC initiates a Push request to submit a data object to SP. This may be for creating a new data object or updating an existing one.
· If the initiator is a human user, the SC’s ACS performs authorization to make sure the requesting Principal is authorized to make such a request. The current profile does not cover this transaction.
· The SC sends a request to its ACS, or another trusted Identity Provider to receive attribute assertions corresponding to the Principal, the organization, and the transaction.
· The SC sends a Push request to the SP which includes a data object to be submitted to SP as well as the attribute assertions to the request, the organization, and the context of the transaction, e.g. purpose of use.
· The SP captures the request and calls its own ACS.
· If SP’s ACS deems the request authorized, the SP consumes the data object and sends back a signaling message to acknowledge the success of the transaction. This may include other information such as the unique identifier assigned to the data object by the server in the case of creating a new data object.
The Trust Handshake is a more general use-case in which the SC approaches the SP with a request to establish trust in order to facilitate future exchange requests. Traditionally, trust handshakes often take place offline and based on manual human negotiations involving technical and legal agreements. As more entities join the exchange market, however, a more dynamic approach is needed in which the SP relies on certifications and attestations by third-parties provided as assertions and in a machine readable form so that it can establish trust with a SC on a dynamic basis.
The flow for this use-case is very similar to the other XSPA flows discussed above, with the difference that it does not specify any specific data objects or any other attributes pertaining to the context of a specific exchange. The attributes provided in this request are only intended to introduce the SC and support the case that the SP can trust the SC for future exchanges. Examples of such attributes are the organization identifier for the SC, its certifications, and policy attestations which denote its compliance with policies or agreements which support the case for a trust relation.
When the SP receives this request, it checks the request attributes against the applicable trust policies. If trust is approved by the applicable policies, the SP accepts the request and notes the SC’s identity (e.g. organization identifier) as a trusted partner. Note that the level of trust gained via this protocol can vary and a dynamically trusted SC may be assigned a lower level of trust compared to a partner with manual trust verifications.
Future exchange requests from a trusted SC can proceed more smoothly without repeating the trust handshake.
The actors and components existing the XSPA Use-Cases are further discussed in this section.
The Service Consumer Access Control Service (ACS) provides identity and access control functions to the SC. The Access Control Service resides within the ACS but it may act as a bridge to a third-party Identity Provider (IdP) trusted by the SP.
The Service Provider ACS provides identity and access control functions for the SP. It takes the role of a SAML Relying Party and includes components for parsing assertions. It may also include components for evaluating the assertions against the security and privacy policies and making authorization decisions, Security Labeling Services, and Privacy Preserving Services for enforcing privacy decisions such as masking and redaction. The Service Provider enforces the decisions made by its ACS.
Security and privacy policies include the rules that apply to access to protected resources. Such rules are based on various attributes such as the SC identity, purpose of use, security clearance, etc. They may also include obligation rules about labeling the outgoing data objects or privacy modifications such as masking or redaction. This profile does not discuss the details of such policies.
Attributes are information pertaining to the access request such as the requesting Principal’s identifier, role, organization, and purpose of use which are consequential in making access control decisions.
This profile is based on the SAML 2.0 core specification. Requests MAY be exchanged using a SAML assertion containing elements such as: saml2:Issuer and saml2:AttributeStatement.
Although implementations of this profile MAY user saml2:NameID, as discussed in Section 3.5, the identity expressed in this element should not be relied on, therefore, the reliable subject identifier must be expressed in the form of an assertion according to SAML v2.0 Subject Identifier Attributes Profile Version 1.0 [SAML-SUB-ID].
Table 1 shows the standard data types used for the attributes defined in this profile. Abbreviated forms will be used in the rest of this document.
Table 1: Standard Data Types (Normative)
Type ID |
Abbreviated Form |
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
String |
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#anyURI |
anyURI |
This profile also defines a special data type, based on Concept Descriptor (CD) data structure [ISO 21090:2011: 7.5.2 CD], commonly used by HL7 [HL7-Core-Schema-v3]. The Concept Descriptor data structure captures values defined in the context of a code system.
This profile only supports the Code and Code System elements in the CD data structure. The implementation MAY ignore other elements, such as display names and translations, if present.
This profile defines three different ways to encode Concept Descriptors; the first one is Normative and the latter two are optional if the standard codes used by the implementation can be flattened using the first mechanism.
An implementation MUST use only one of these schemes in a single transaction, i.e. avoid mixing different encodings in a single assertion, although it MAY support more than one of these encodings and choose to use them in different transactions based on parameters beyond the scope of this profile.
This profile defines the following scheme to flatten CDs into a value of type String:
[Fully-Qualified Unique identifier of the Code System ID]#[Code]
Note that this mechanism presumes that the delimiter, “#”, does not appear in the codes or the code system names, otherwise the implementers MUST use the XML complex datatypes discussed further below in order to avoid any ambiguity.
{non-normative}
For example, the purpose of “record management” (RECORDMGT) from HL7’s purpose of use vocabulary (2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448) can be encoded as the following:
<saml:Attribute
xmlns:xacmlprof="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:profiles:attribute:XACML"
NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri"
Name="urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:action:purpose"
xacmlprof:DataType="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#anyURI">
<saml:AttributeValue xsi:type="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#anyURI">
2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448#RECORDMGT
</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
{non-normative}
An implementation MAY use complex XML encodings of the Concept Descriptor. This profiles supports the following two complex XML encodings:
- The CD type in HL7 core namespace, urn:hl7-org:v3, or its specializations Coded Equivalent (CE) and Coded Value (CV) [HL7-Core-Schema-v3].
- the code type in HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), http://hl7.org/fhir [HL7-FHIR].
The following example demonstrate encoding a purpose of use based on the CD type in HL7 core namespace:
<saml:Attribute
xmlns:xacmlprof="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:profiles:attribute:XACML"
NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri"
Name="urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:action:purpose"
xacmlprof:DataType="urn:hl7-org:v3:CD">
<saml:AttributeValue
xsi:type="urn:hl7-org:v3:CD"
xmlns:hl7="urn:hl7-org:v3">
<hl7:value hl7:type="CD"
hl7:code="RECORDMGT"
hl7:displayName="records management"
hl7:codeSystem="2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448"
hl7:codeSystemName="Purpose of Use" />
</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
The following example demonstrate encoding a purpose of use based on the code type in HL7 FHIR:
<saml:Attribute
xmlns:xacmlprof="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:profiles:attribute:XACML"
NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri"
Name="urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:action:purpose"
xacmlprof:DataType="http://hl7.org/fhir/coding">
<saml:AttributeValue
xsi:type=http://hl7.org/fhir/coding
xmlns:fhir="http://hl7.org/fhir">
<fhir:code>
<fhir:system fhir:value="2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448" />
<fhir:code fhir:value="RECORDMGT" />
</fhir:code>
</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
This profile defines the following namespaces:
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0
Attribute names MUST adhere to the rules defined by Section 2.7.3.1 of SAML 2.0 Core Specifications [SAMLCore]. Additionally, to guarantee interoperability with OASIS eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML), attribute names and values MUST also adhere to the XACML Attribute Profile of SAML [SAML-PROF:8.5 XACML Attribute Profile].
The XML attribute NameFormat in <Attribute> elements MUST be set to:
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri
The optional XML attribute FriendlyName (defined in Section 2.7.3.1 of SAML Core Specifications [SAMLCore]) MAY be used to carry an optional string name for human readability.
As prescribed by the XACML Attribute Profile of SAML [SAML-PROF:8.5 XACML Attribute Profile], each attribute element also includes a URI-valued XML attribute called DataType in the following XML namespace:
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:profiles:attribute:XACML
The DataType XML attribute MUST be present unless its value can be assumed to be the default, i.e. String.
Two <Attribute> elements refer to the same SAML attribute if and only if their Name XML attribute values are equal if and only if they are equal on a Unicode codepoint-by-codepoint basis. The optional XML attribute FriendlyName plays no role in the comparison.
Two attribute values of type String or anyURI are considered equal if and only if they are equal on a Unicode codepoint-by-codepoint basis.
In complex XML encodings for Concept Descriptor attribute values (as described in Section 3.1.1.2), attribute values are considered equal if and only if their code and codeSystem values are respectively equal based on the above rule for String equality.
The subject identity, which specifies the identity of the entity which is the subject of the assertions MUST be specified according to SAML v2.0 Subject Identifier Attributes Profile Version 1.0 [SAML-SUB-ID], using either of the following attributes of type String defined by that profile.
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:attribute:subject-id
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:attribute:pairwise-id
The former is used for universally unique identifiers and the latter is used for identifiers that are only unique between the exchanging partners.
This deprecates the use of the following attribute defined in the previous version of this profile:
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:subject-id
Note that the subject identifier may correspond to any entity which is the subject of the assertions, including a human user, an organization, or a system entity.
Table 2 shows the list of normative attributes defined by this profile which the implementers MUST support. Table 3 shows the list of deprecated attributes. Future versions of this profile may no longer support these deprecated attributes.
Table 2: Attributes
Required |
Identifier[1] |
DataType |
Description and Valid Values |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:organization |
String |
The name of the requesting organization. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:organization-id |
String |
The unique identifier of the organization, sub-organization and facility of the Service Consumer. To represent the organizational hierarchy, using urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:organizational-hierarchy (below) is preferred. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:child-organization |
String |
|
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:facility |
String |
|
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:organizational-hierarchy
|
String |
Unique identifiers of the consuming sub-organizations. This is an alternative to using the separate attributes for each level as defined above. Various levels of sub-organizations hierarchy SHOULD be represented as multiple values of type String in order of the most high-level organizational unit to the least. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0: subject:role |
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s structural role. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:functional-role
|
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s functional role. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:permissions
|
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s permissions which represent the user’s capabilities. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:confidentiality-clearance |
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s confidentiality clearance. The The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:sensitivity-clearance |
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s sensitivity clearance. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:integrity-clearance |
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s integrity clearances. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:compartment-clearance |
HL7CD |
The requesting Principal’s compartment clearance. The values SHOULD belong to a standard or mutually-agreed vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0: resource:resource-id |
String |
Identifier of the data object(s) being requested, e.g. the patient unique identifier, or the query string defining the requested data in case of bulk requests. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: resource:resource-type |
HL7CD |
The type of data object being requested if applicable. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. Deprecates urn:gov:hhs:fha:nhinc:service-type |
Yes |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0: action:action-id |
HL7CD |
The identifier of the requested action. The value SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
Yes |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0: action:purpose |
HL7CD |
The purpose of use for the request. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:supported-obligations |
HL7CD |
List of obligations that the Service Consumer supports and is able to enforce. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:supported-refrains |
HL7CD |
List of refrains that the Service Consumer supports and is able to enforce. The values SHOULD belong to a standard vocabulary such as HL7 Refrains Vocabulary. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: resource:patient-consent-directive |
anyURI |
The pointer to the patient consent directive corresponding to the requested data objects. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: resource:patient-consent-directive-type |
String |
The type of patient consent directive. This attribute SHALL NOT be present without a corresponding urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: resource:patient-consent-directive attribute. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:certification |
String |
Certification credentials provided by a jurisdictional or professional body. This attribute is only applicable to the trust handshake use-case. |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0: subject:policy-attestation |
String |
Machine-driven assessment of conformance to a known policy or requirement. This attribute is only applicable to the trust handshake use-case. |
Table 3: Attributes Planned for Deprecation
Identifier |
DataType |
Description and Valid Values |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:subject-id |
String |
Deprecated by Subject Identifier Attributes Profile (see Section 3.5). |
urn:gov:hhs:fha:nhinc:service-type |
String |
Deprecated by: urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:type |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0: subject:purposeofuse |
String |
Deprecated by: urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:action:purpose |
{non-normative}
This profile adheres to error states described SAML 2.0 Core Specifications [SAMLCore].
The following security considerations are established for the XSPA profile of SAML:
· SC and SP have agreed to use this XSPA profile,
· A trust relationship between SP and SC exists ,
· Security and privacy policies have been identified and provisioned,
· The capabilities and location of requested information/document repository services are known,
· Secure channels are established as required by policy,
· Audit services are operational and initialized, and
· Entities have asserted membership in an information domain by successful and unique authentication.
This profile requires the use of a secure transmission protocol such as HTTPS for exchanging assertions. The implementers MAY choose to encrypt the assertions using the mechanisms defined in SAML.
The manner used by the relying party to confirm that the requester message came from a system entity that is associated with the subject of the assertion will depend upon the context and sensitivity of the data. For confirmations requiring a specific level of assurance, this profile specifies the use of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-63 Electronic Authentication Guideline [NIST-800-63-1].
{non-normative}
Many modern applications use protocols other than SAML which rely on assertions —sometimes referred to as claims— which are encoded in JavaScript Object Notation [JSON]. This section provides the guidelines for encoding the attributes defined by this profile in protocols relying on JSON. Note that in all JSON snippets in this section, whitespaces are added only for readability and are not a normative part of the data structure.
Attribute identifiers defined by this profile can be encoded as JSON strings and implementers MAY choose to use them as such.
When the attribute identifier is used as a key in a JSON object, however, it is often desirable to use simpler identifiers which can be directly mapped to a variable name in a programming language. To enable this and only in cases where the context is unambiguous, the implementers can use simplified attribute identifiers by:
- Dropping the namespace prefix,
- Adding xspa2_ prefix, and
- Replacing dash (“-”) with underscore (“_”).
For consistency with standard claims defined by OpenID Connect [OpenID-Connect: 5.1. Standard Claims], the subject identifier attributes MUST be encoded as sub. Table 4 shows the simplified JSON encoding of attribute identifiers.
The implementers MUST stick to either of the above JSON encodings for a JSON object and MUST NOT mix the two in a single object.
Table 4: Simplified Attribute Identifiers for JSON Encoding.
Attribute Identifier |
Simplified Identifier for JSON Encoding |
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:attribute:subject-id |
sub |
urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:attribute:pairwise-id |
sub |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:organization |
xspa2_organization |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:organization-id |
xspa2_organization_id |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:child-organization |
xspa2_child_organization |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:facility |
xspa2_facility |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:organizational-hierarchy
|
xspa2_organizational_hierarchy |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:subject:role |
xspa2_role |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:functional-role
|
xspa2_functional_role |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:permissions |
xspa2_permissions |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:confidentiality-clearance |
xspa2_confidentiality_clearance |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:sensitivity-clearance |
xspa2_sensitivity_clearance |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:integrity-clearance |
xspa2_integrity_clearance |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:compartment-clearance |
xspa2_compartment_clearance |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:resource:resource-id |
xspa2_resource_id |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:resource-type |
xspa2_resource_type |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:action:action-id |
xspa2_action_id |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:action:purpose |
xspa2_purpose |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:supported-obligations |
xspa2_supported_obligations |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:supported-refrains |
xspa2_supported_refrains |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:patient-consent-directive |
xspa2_patient_consent_directive |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:patient-consent-directive-type |
xspa2_patient_consent_directive_type |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:npi
|
xspa2_npi |
urn:nhin:names:saml:homeCommunityId |
xspa2_homeCommunityId |
urn:ihe:iti:xca:2010:homeCommunityId |
xspa2_homeCommunityId |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:certification |
xspa2_certification |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:policy-attestation |
xspa2_policy_attestation |
Attribute values of type String and anyURI can be encoded straightforwardly in JSON as JSON Strings. When an attribute is multi-valued, the values MUST be encoded using JSON arrays.
For encoding values of type HL7CD, the implementation MUST support the flattened notation described in Section 3.1. Optionally, the implementations MAY also use the following JSON structure:
{
"system": [code system id]
"code": [code]
}
The example attribute assertion from Section 3.1 can be encoded in JSON as either:
{
"xspa2_purpose": "2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448#RECORDMGT"
}
or:
{
"xspa2_purpose": {
"system": "2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448",
"code": "RECORDMGT"
}
}
The following shows an example of an OpenID Connect claims token in which some of the attributes from this profile are included as additional claims:
{
"sub": "department-1@org1.net",
"iss": "https://openid.org1.org",
"aud": "org2",
"nonce": "hcHlnk,vrjklh",
"auth_time": 1311280969,
"iat": 1311280970,
"exp": 1311281970,
"xspa2_organization": "Organization One",
"xspa2_purpose": [
{
"system": "2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448",
"code": "RECORDMGT"
},
{
"system": "2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448",
"code": "HOPERAT"
}
]
}
In order to claim conformance, an implementation MUST conform to Section 2 of SAML 2.0 Core Specifications [SAML] and comply with the requirements of all subsections of Sections 3 which are not marked as “non-normative,” including the attributes in Table 2.
In addition to the above requirements, an implementation in the United States MUST support the US-real attributes in Table 5, and use specific vocabularies for some of the attribute values as described in Table 6. Note that some of these value-sets are extensible and therefore new values can be added to the vocabulary if needed.
Table 5: US-realm Attributes
Required |
Identifier |
DataType |
Description and Valid Values |
No |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:npi |
String |
National Provider Identifier. |
No |
urn:nhin:names:saml:homeCommunityId and urn:ihe:iti:xca:2010:homeCommunityId |
String |
The Home Community Identifier as defined by [NHIN-V3]. The implementers SHALL interpret these two attributes to be equivalent. |
Table 6. Vocabulary Requirements for US-Realm Conformance
Attribute Identifier |
Vocabulary |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:subject:role |
ASTM Structural Roles Vocabulary [ASTM E1986-09(2013)]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:1.0:subject:permissions |
HL7 Healthcare Permissions Vocabulary [HL7-PERM: Appendix A - Healthcare Permission Tables]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:confidentiality-clearance |
HL7 Confidentiality value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.10228) [HL7-Vocab]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:sensitivity-clearance |
HL7 InformationSensitivityPolicy value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20428) [HL7-Vocab] |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:integrity-clearance |
HL7 SecurityIntegrityObservationValue value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20481) [HL7-Vocab]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:compartment-clearance |
HL7 Compartment value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20478) [HL7-Vocab]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:resource:type |
HL7 Healthcare Object Codeset [HL7-PERM: 6.Object Definitions]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:action:action-id |
HL7 Healthcare Operations Codeset [HL7-PERM: 5. Operation Definitions]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:action:purpose |
HL7 PurposeOfUse value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20448) [HL7-Vocab]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:supported-obligations |
HL7 ObligationPolicy value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20445) [HL7-Vocab]. |
urn:oasis:names:tc:xspa:2.0:subject:supported-refrains |
HL7 RefrainPolicy value set (OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.1.11.20446) [HL7-Vocab]. |
The following individuals have participated in the creation of this specification and are gratefully acknowledged:
Participants:
Kel Callahan, HIPAAT International, Inc.
Kathleen Connor, Veterans Health Administration
John M. Davis, Veterans Health Administration
DeCouteau, Duane, Veterans Health Administration
Mohammad Jafari, Veterans Health Administration
Anthony Mallia, Veterans Health Administration
Beth Pumo, Kaiser Permanente
Christopher Shawn, Veterans Health Administration
David Staggs, Veterans Health Administration
Revision |
Date |
Editor |
Changes Made |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd01 |
11 Mar. 2012 |
Duane DeCouteau |
Working Draft revisions 01 |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd02 |
6 Apr. 2012 |
Duane DeCouteau |
Comments and Changes updated from April 6th TC Meetings. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd03 |
27 Apr. 2012 |
Duane DeCouteau |
Comments and Changes updated from April 27th TC Meetings |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd04 |
23 May 2012 |
Duane DeCouteau |
Update to organizational-hierarchy purpose of use vocabulary, supported-obligation-policies, supported-refrain-policies |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd05 |
19 Jul. 2013 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Updating the template. Minor editorial corrections. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd05 |
11 Mar. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Update to the structure and attribute IDs. - Harmonization with XACML standard attributes. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd05 |
21 Mar. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Added HL7 CD data type. Updated the conformance table. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd05 |
28 Mar. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Comments from March 25 meeting. |
saml-xspa-2.0-csd01 |
1 Apr. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Approved by the TC as CSD. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd06 |
25 Jun. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Public Review Comments Adding push scenario |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd06 |
10 Sep. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Resolved OASIS Technical Advisory Board Comments |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd06 |
15 Oct. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Added US-realm conformance clauses. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd06 |
25 Nov. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Added: - Requirement for compliance with XACML Attribute Profile - Requirement for providing DataType XML attributed to guarantee interoperability with XACML. - Correcting CD data type to include URN-based modeling. Allowing alternative XML formats if the ACS implementation can ensure complex data types are supported. - Note on how to fill the NameID of the saml:Subject element. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd07 |
10 Dec. 2014 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Minor edits |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd08 |
27 Jul. 2015 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Adding new attributes for clearance: Integrity, Compartment, Purpose. Adding a note in the introduction about the consequences of this profile for recording the principal's attributes in audit. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd09 |
25 Aug. 2015 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Including OIDs for valuesets. Updating clearance attributes. Merging obligations and refrains into caveats. Adding Consent Directive pointer. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd10 |
16 Mar. 2016 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Editorial corrections. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd11 |
10 Mar. 2017 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Preparing for the next committee draft. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd12 |
16 Apr. 2018 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Moving back to working draft to: - Minor edits to the use-case section. - Making some of the attributes non-normative per TC discussions. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd13 |
24 Sep. 2018 |
David Staggs |
Updated POU to reference HL7 codes, included discussion on medical record access during large scale disasters. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd13 |
26 Oct. 2018 |
Mohammad Jafari |
Adding short form for attributes when encoded in JSON. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd13 |
2 Nov. 2018 |
Mohammad Jafari |
- SAML subject ID reference and section. Removing reference to NameID. - OpenID reference and conformance for subject IDs. - Clarifying the confusion between normative and required attributes. - Conformance to FHIR flattening style for Concept Descriptors. - Separating examples into non-normative sections. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd14 |
9 Nov. 2018 |
Mohammad Jafari |
- Finalizing and confirming the HL7 value set references for US realm. Comparing with FHIR and IHE ITI. - Final editorial cleanup. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd15 |
16 Nov. 2018 |
Mohammad Jafari |
- Equality rule for attribute values. - More clarification around use of HL7 CD. - Add support for CE and CV encodings as specializations of CD on the non-normative section on complex XML encoding. - Add IHE ITI homeCommunityId and its equivalency to the corresponding NHIN attribute. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd16 |
19 Feb. 2019 |
Mohammad Jafari |
- Adding certification and policy attestation attributes. - Adding the Trust Handshake use-case. - Some Typos. - Updates to participation. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd17 |
25 Feb. 2019 |
Mohammad Jafari |
- Fixing typos in the examples of Section 5.2. |
saml-xspa-2.0-wd18 |
25 Feb. 2019 |
Mohammad Jafari |
- Fixing typos in the names of the certification and policy attestation attributes. |
[1] In this and subsequent tables, line-breaks in attribute names are for the purpose of type setting and readability; attribute identifiers are strings with no line-breaks.