Advanced Security Single Sign-On

Single sign-on is the ability to authenticate once, even when two servers are involved. For example, if the Microsoft IIS Web server authenticates a user, a ColdFusion page implementing the IsAuthenticated function would not need to re-authenticate that user.

In single sign-on, two or more agents trying to authenticate a user will share the same authentication ticket and avoid challenging the user twice for credentials. For ColdFusion, one agent is a Web server acting as an agent to Netegrity SiteMinder. The second is a ColdFusion custom agent talking to the policy server via APIs. When the Web server authenticates a user, its SiteMinder agent will append to the http header of the *.cfm file forwarded to ColdFusion, CGI parameters which include the authentication session ticket. ColdFusion uses that ticket to prove to the SiteMinder server that it has authentication, therefore preventing a second sign on.

Please refer to the release notes for information about setting up and configuring single sign-on with ColdFusion.

Advanced ColdFusion Administration
Configuring Advanced Security