Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), developed by the Security Services Technical Committee of OASIS, is an XML-based framework for communicating user authentication, entitlement and attribute information. SAML allows business entities to make assertions regarding the identity, attributes, and entitlements of a subject (an entity that is often a human user) to other entities, such as a partner company or another enterprise.

The module application.SAML is also:

A set of XML-based protocol messages

A set of protocol message bindings

A set of profiles (utilizing all of the above)

Identity Provider (IdP) is a system that creates, maintains, and manages identity information for principals (users, services, or systems), and provides principal authentication to other service providers (applications) within a federation or distributed network.

Service Provider (SP) is any system that provides services, typically the services for which users seek authentication, including web or enterprise applications. A special type of service provider, the identity provider, administers identity information.