SimpleSAMLphp Documentation

The consent module is implemented as an Authentication Processing Filter. That means it can be configured in the global config.php file or the SP remote or IdP hosted metadata.

It is recommended to run the consent module at the IdP, and configure the filter to run after all attribute mangling filters have completed, to show the user the exact same attributes that are sent to the SP.

Read more about processing filters in SimpleSAMLphp

First you need to enable the consent module; in config.php , search for the module.enable key and add consent with value true :

'module.enable' => [
     'consent' => true,
     …
],

In order to generate the privacy preserving hashes in the consent module, you need to pick one attribute that is always available and that is unique to all users. An example of such an attribute is uid or eduPersonPrincipalName.

If the attribute defined above is not available for a user, an error message will be shown, and the user will not be allowed through the filter. So make sure that you select an attribute that is available to all users.

Add the filter to your Identity Provider hosted metadata authproc filters list, specifying the attribute you've selected.

90 => [
    'class' => 'consent:Consent',
    'identifyingAttribute' => 'uid',
],

This setup uses no persistent storage at all. This means that the user will always be asked to give consent each time she logs in.

Using storage

The consent module is shipped with two storage options, Cookie and Database.

Using cookies as storage

In order to use a storage backend, you need to set the store option. To use cookies as storage you need to set the store option to consent:Cookie .

Example:

90 => [
    'class'                => 'consent:Consent',
    'identifyingAttribute' => 'uid',
    'store'                => 'consent:Cookie', 
],

If necessary, you can set the cookie parameters in the config array using the same semantics as other cookies (default values shown):

90 => [
    'class'                => 'consent:Consent',
    'identifyingAttribute' => 'uid',
    'store'                => [
        'consent:Cookie',
        'name' => '\SimpleSAML\Module\consent', # prefix for name
        'lifetime' => 7776000,
        'path' => '/',
        'domain' => '',
        'secure' => true,
        'samesite' => null,
    ],
],

Using a database as storage

In order to use a database backend storage, you first need to setup the database.

Here is the initialization SQL script:

CREATE TABLE consent (
    consent_date TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    usage_date TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    hashed_user_id VARCHAR(80) NOT NULL,
    service_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    attribute VARCHAR(80) NOT NULL,
    UNIQUE (hashed_user_id, service_id)
);

The consent:Database backend storage has the following options:

class: Must be set to consent:Database .
dsn: Data Source Name must comply to the syntax for the PHP PDO layer.
username: Username for the database user to be used for the connection.
password: Password for the database user used for the connection.
table: Name of the table used for storing the consents. This option is optional and defaults to consent .
timeout: The number of seconds to wait for a connection to the database server. This option is optional. If unset, it uses the default from the database-driver.

Example config using PostgreSQL database:

90 => [
    'class' => 'consent:Consent',
    'identifyingAttribute' => 'uid',
    'store' => [
        'consent:Database', 
        'dsn' => 'pgsql:host=sql.example.org;dbname=consent',
        'username' => 'simplesaml',
        'password' => 'sdfsdf',
    ],
],

Example config using MySQL database:

90 => [
    'class' => 'consent:Consent',
    'identifyingAttribute' => 'uid',
    'store' => [
        'consent:Database', 
        'dsn' => 'mysql:host=db.example.org;dbname=simplesaml',
        'username' => 'simplesaml',
        'password' => 'sdfsdf',
    ],
],

The following options can be used when configuring the Consent module:

includeValues: Boolean value that indicates whether the values of the attributes should be used in calculating the unique hashes that identifies the consent. If includeValues is set and the value of an attribute changes, then the consent becomes invalid. This option is optional and defaults to FALSE.
checked: Boolean value that indicates whether the "Remember" consent checkbox is checked by default. This option is optional and defaults to FALSE.
focus: Indicates whether the "Yes" or "No" button is in focus by default. This option is optional and can take the value 'yes' or 'no' as strings. If omitted neither will receive focus.
store: Configuration of the Consent storage backend. The store option is given in the format <module>:<class> and refers to the class \SimpleSAML\Module\<module>\Consent\Store\<class> . The consent module comes with two built in storage backends: 'consent:Cookie' and 'consent:Database'. See the separate section on setting up consent using different storage methods. This option is optional. If the option is not set, then the user is asked to consent, but the consent is not saved.
hiddenAttributes: Whether the value of the attributes should be hidden. Set to an array of the attributes that should have their value hidden. Default behaviour is that all attribute values are shown.
attributes.exclude: Allows certain attributes to be excluded from the attribute hash when includeValues is true (and as a side effect, to be hidden from display as hiddenAttributes does). Set to an array of the attributes that should be excluded. Default behaviour is to include all values in the hash.
showNoConsentAboutService: Whether we will show a link to more information about the service from the no consent page (configured in the SP metadata as the MDUI InformationURL ). Defaults to true .

External options

The following options can be set in other places in SimpleSAMLphp:

PrivacyStatementURL: This is an absolute URL for where a user can find a privacy policy for the SP. If set, this will be shown on the consent page. This option can be set in SP-remote metadata and in IdP-hosted metadata using the MDUI-extension. The entry in the SP-remote metadata overrides the option in the IdP-hosted metadata.
consent.disable: Disable consent for a set of services. See section Disabling consent .

Consent can be disabled either in the IdP metadata or in the SP metadata. To disable consent for one or more SPs for a given IdP, add the consent.disable -option to the IdP metadata. To disable consent for one or more IdPs for a given SP, add the consent.disable -option to the SP metadata.

Examples

Disable consent for a given IdP:

$metadata['https://idp.example.org/'] = [
    [...],
    'consent.disable' => true,
];

Disable consent for some SPs connected to a given IdP:

$metadata['https://idp.example.org/'] = [
    [...],
    'consent.disable' => [
        'https://sp1.example.org/',
        'https://sp2.example.org/',
    ],
];

Disable consent for a given SP:

$metadata['https://sp.example.org'] = [
    [...]
    'consent.disable' => true,
],

Disable consent for some IdPs for a given SP:

$metadata['https://sp.example.org'] = [
    [...]
    'consent.disable' => [
        'https://idp1.example.org/',
        'https://idp2.example.org/',
    ],
],

Regular expression support

You can use regular expressions to evaluate the entityId of either the IdP or the SP. It makes it possible to disable consent for an entire domain or for a range of specific entityIds. Just use an array instead of a flat string with the following format (note that flat string and array entries are allowed at the same time) :

$metadata['https://sp.example.org'] = [
    [...]
    'consent.disable' => [
        'https://idp1.example.org/',
        ['type' => 'regex', 'pattern' => '/.*\.mycompany\.com.*/i'],
    ],
],

Attribute presentation

It is possible to change the way the attributes are represented in the consent page. This is done by implementing an attribute array reordering function.

To create this function, you have to create a file named

hook_attributepresentation.php

and place it under the

<module_name>/hooks

directory. To be found and called, the function must be named

<module_name>_hook_attributepresentation(&$para)

The parameter $para is a reference to the attribute array. By manipulating this array you can change the way the attributes are presented to the user on the consent and status page.

If you want the attributes to be listed in more than one level, you can make the function add a child_ prefix to the root node attribute name in a recursive attribute tree.

Example

These values will be listed as an bullet list

Array (
    [objectClass] => Array (
        [0] => top
        [1] => person
    )
)

This array has two child arrays. These will be listed in two separate sub tables.

Array (
    [child_eduPersonOrgUnitDN] => Array (
        [0] => Array (
            [ou] => Array (
                [0] => ET
            )
            [cn] => Array (
                [0] => Eksterne tjenester
            )
        )
        [1] => Array (
            [ou] => Array (
                [0] => TA
            )
            [cn] => Array (
                [0] => Tjenesteavdeling
            )
        )
    )
)

Consent module

How to setup the consent module