SAML: A fractal of bad design

Born out of academia and raised in corporate IT departments, the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication protocol continues to be a staple in these organizations. However, it’s time for it to retire. With the rise of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies in the late aughts, IT departments needed a way for users to authenticate to many new web services. SAML and the burgeoning single sign-on (SSO) industry fulfilled this need. However, SAML is being crushed under the weight of i...