We're implementing a web SSO solution using PingFederate, with a 3rd party product that includes SAML2 out of the box.
However we're trying to work through the question of how to stop the IDP session timing out if the user is still actively using the SP.
The 3rd party product supports requesting an empty resource on the IDP side, with the intention that this URL would result in the IDP session being extended.
I can't see anything in PingFederate that supports anything like this. Does anybody know how this is generally resolved? Is there a way to extend the PingFederate session e.g. API call, HTTP POST to an endpoint, whatever?
Or does the SP need to construct a new authenticate request? If so, does this result in a new SAML response / token being issued with a new NotOnOrAfter date?
Unfortunately, this isn't a use case that SAML 2.0 covers and any solution that fits within the SAML 2.0 spec will probably be custom to an individual product. Additionally, is no way to have the SP extend the session at PingFed (IDP) except to do another round-trip for SSO.
Typically customers handle this by making the session at the IDP long-lived so that user's are not prompted to login again when switching between SPs.
If you control both the IDP and the SP, then I'd recommend looking at using PingAccess in conjunction with PingFederate. You can still Federate into the application via PingFed but PingAccess will allow you to manage the sessions across applications.