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30 changes: 25 additions & 5 deletions docs/en/stack/security/troubleshooting.asciidoc
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -575,17 +575,37 @@ Authentication in {kib} fails and the following error is printed in the
Authentication to realm my-saml-realm failed -
Provided SAML response is not valid for realm saml/my-saml-realm
(Caused by ElasticsearchSecurityException[SAML Response is not a 'success' response:
Code=urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:AuthnFailed Message=null Detail=null])
The SAML IdP did not grant the request. It indicated that the Elastic Stack side sent
something invalid (urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Requester). Specific status code which might
indicate what the issue is: [urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:InvalidNameIDPolicy]]
)
....

*Resolution:*

This means that the SAML Identity Provider failed to authenticate the user and
sent a SAML Response to the Service Provider ({stack}) indicating this failure.
The `Code`, `Message` and `Detail` can convey different error identifiers and
additional information that might offer an indication about the cause of the
failure. In case `Message` and `Detail` are null, please consult the logs and
documentation of the Identity Provider in order to further diagnose the problem.
The message will convey whether the SAML Identity Provider thinks that the problem
is with the Service Provider ({stack}) or with the Identity Provider itself and
the specific status code that follows is extremely useful as it usually indicates
the underlying issue. The list of specific error codes is defined in the
https://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-core-2.0-os.pdf[SAML 2.0 Core specification - Section 3.2.2.2]
and the most commonly encountered ones are:

. `urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:AuthnFailed`: The SAML Identity Provider failed to
authenticate the user. There is not much to troubleshoot on the {stack} side for this status, the logs of
the SAML Identity Provider will hopefully offer much more information.
. `urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:InvalidNameIDPolicy`: The SAML Identity Provider cannot support
releasing a NameID with the requested format. When creating SAML Authentication Requests, {es} sets
the NameIDPolicy element of the Authentication request with the appropriate value. This is controlled
by the {ref}/security-settings.html#ref-saml-settings[`nameid_format`] configuration parameter in
`elasticsearch.yml`, which if not set defaults to `urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:transient`.
This instructs the Identity Provider to return a NameID with that specific format in the SAML Response. If
the SAML Identity Provider cannot grant that request, for example because it is configured to release a
NameID format with `urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:persistent` format instead, it returns this error
indicating an invalid NameID policy. This issue can be resolved by adjusting `nameid_format` to match the format
the SAML Identity Provider can return or by setting it to `urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:unspecified`
so that the Identity Provider is allowed to return any format it wants.
--

. *Symptoms:*
Expand Down