How SAML certificate renewal works - and what happens when it fails

SAML certificates are the backbone of any SAML SSO connection; forgetting to renew them before they expire could result in immediate loss of service for your customers, loss of revenue, and damage to your brand. In this article, you'll learn:

• Why SAML certificates expire
• How SAML certificate renewal works
• How WorkOS simplifies certificate management
• Why automated certificate renewal matters
• The consequences of improper certificate renewal

Let’s first take a look at SAML certificates to understand why they expire.

Why do SAML Certificates Expire?

SAML certificates expire for the same reason that other certificates like SSL or TLS expire: security.

Certificates are essentially cryptographic keys whose contents could easily compromise security in the event of a breach. By forcing the periodic rotation of these secrets, we can assure a certain level of security even in the event of a breach. Expiration helps to ensure that even if a certificate were compromised, it would only be available for use for a limited amount of time.Most SAML certificates have expiration periods between 1 to 3 years. While this timeline provides a reasonable level of security without creating undue burden on IT teams, it also requires organizations to have a process in place to renew certificates before they expire. Failure to renew in time can result in immediate service disruption - locking users out of your platform.

How SAML certificate renewal works

When a SAML certificate is approaching its expiration date, it needs to be renewed. The renewal process involves generating a new certificate and updating it on both the identity provider and the service provider ends of the SAML connection. Here’s what a manual renewal process looks like:

• Monitoring Expiry Dates: The first step is to keep track of all certificate expiration dates across your organization’s various IdPs. Many SAML solutions, like WorkOS, offer dashboards that allow you to easily see when certificates are due to expire. Without a tool to generate reminders for you, it will be up to your IT team to make sure that the appropriate reminders are being created to renew these certificates in a timely manner.
• Generating a New Certificate: Once a certificate is nearing expiration, a new one must be generated. This certificate includes a new cryptographic key and updated validity dates.
• Updating the Metadata: Both the IdP and the SP need to be updated with the new certificate information. This involves updating the SAML metadata, which contains information about the certificate and other connection settings.
• Testing the New Certificate: After the certificate has been updated, it’s important to test the connection to ensure everything is functioning correctly. Any mistakes in the certificate update process can lead to authentication failures and potential downtime.

For companies that have multiple clients utilizing a SAML connection, the challenge will continue to grow as they, ideally, continue onboarding new customers that bring their own IdP. If renewal is handled manually, this can easily become a needlessly burdensome task for any IT team.

The WorkOS advantage: simplifying SAML certificate management

With WorkOS, you don’t need to worry about renewing all of your certificates. Our platform makes the process of maintaining SAML connections as straightforward as possible so your team can focus on other things. Here’s how we do it:

• Clear Expiration Alerts: The WorkOS dashboard labels certificates with upcoming expiration dates, giving your team an easy-to-access overview of what’s about to expire. This proactive visibility helps you stay ahead of potential issues.
• Automated Notifications: WorkOS sends alerts through multiple channels, including Slack and email, ensuring your team is fully informed of certificate renewals. We reach out to keep you in the loop, so nothing slips through the cracks.
• Metadata URL for Automated Renewal: One of the most powerful features we offer for SAML certificate management is our automated renewal process. You have the option to supply the SAML metadata URL when configuring your connection. The SAML metadata url allows service providers to renew without the need to manually generate and upload another certificate by navigating to the Identity Provider’s server and retrieving new certificate information.

Why Automated Certificate Renewal Matters

As we’ve learned, renewing SAML certificates is essential for maintaining the security and availability of your application.

Key Benefits of Automated SAML Certificate Renewal

• Reduced downtime risk by ensuring certificates remain up-to-date
• Freeing up engineering and IT resources to focus on product development and complex problems with higher business value
• Provides peace of mind, knowing that certificates are constantly monitored for expiry and renewal

Consequences of Improper Certificate Renewal

Failing to renew SAML certificates in a timely manner can lead to immediate and significant disruptions in service.

This is exemplified by a couple of support threads we’ve found that were created from this very problem:

• Webex SSO Login Failures: An expired Service Provider (SP) certificate in Webex led to Single Sign-On (SSO) login failures for users authenticating through Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS). This issue prevented users from accessing Webex services.
• Atlassian Cloud Access Issues: Users integrating Atlassian Cloud with Microsoft's Entra ID encountered errors indicating that their SAML certificate had expired, despite the certificate being valid for over four years. This misconfiguration resulted in access problems.

As these cases highlight, effective SAML certificate management is vital to maintaining secure, uninterrupted access to your platform. By staying ahead of certificate expiration and utilizing tools like automated renewal through SAML metadata URLs, you can prevent costly service disruptions and protect your organization from potential security vulnerabilities. With a solution like WorkOS, managing this process becomes trivial, allowing your team to focus on building great products while ensuring reliable service for your users.

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