Skip to content
All guides
Security and compliance4 min read

Common SAML security vulnerabilities and how to defend against them

The useful frame is not "is this secure" but "what does an attacker get if this one thing goes wrong, and how quickly would we know".

The useful frame is not "is this secure" but "what does an attacker get if this one thing goes wrong, and how quickly would we know".

This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.

‍Common SAML security vulnerabilities

Consider ‍common saml security vulnerabilities. Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Assertion manipulation

That brings us to assertion manipulation. Blast radius is the metric that actually matters. A credential that can read one organization's data is an incident; the same credential scoped to every organization is a company-ending event, and the difference is a design decision made months earlier.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

  • Scope credentials to the smallest useful blast radius
  • Alert on the abuse you cannot prevent
  • Exercise the rotation path before you need it
  • Log the decision, not just the outcome

Weak encryption

Weak encryption deserves its own treatment. Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Replay attacks

Replay attacks is where this gets concrete. Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Blast radius is the metric that actually matters.

Open redirect

That brings us to open redirect. Blast radius is the metric that actually matters. A credential that can read one organization's data is an incident; the same credential scoped to every organization is a company-ending event, and the difference is a design decision made months earlier.

Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Man-in-the-middle attacks

Man-in-the-middle attacks is where this gets concrete. Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

Rotate on a schedule, not on an incident. A rotation path that has been exercised is a routine change; one that has never been used is an outage waiting for the worst possible moment.

XML External Entity (XXE) attacks

XML External Entity (XXE) attacks is where this gets concrete. Blast radius is the metric that actually matters. A credential that can read one organization's data is an incident; the same credential scoped to every organization is a company-ending event, and the difference is a design decision made months earlier.

Detection beats prevention when prevention is uncertain. If you cannot stop a class of abuse outright, make sure it produces a signal loud enough that someone sees it the same day.

Where this leaves us

None of this is exotic. It is the ordinary discipline of deciding what you own, writing down what you assume, and making the failures loud enough to notice.

If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.

Everything here, already built

Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API.

Stop reading, start shipping

The quickstart takes about ten minutes and leaves you with a working sign-in.