GridCertLib: a Single Sign-on Solution for Grid Web Applications and Portals

This paper describes the design and implementation of GridCertLib, a Java library leveraging a Shibboleth-based authentication infrastructure and the SLCS online certificate signing service, to provide short-lived X.509 certificates and Grid proxies. The main use case envisioned for GridCertLib, is to provide seamless and secure access to Grid/X.509 certificates and proxies in web applications and portals: when a user logs in to the portal using Shibboleth authentication, GridCertLib can automatically obtain a Grid/X.509 certificate from the SLCS service and generate a VOMS proxy from it. We give an overview of the architecture of GridCertLib and briefly describe its programming model. Its application to some deployment scenarios is outlined, as well as a report on practical experience integrating GridCertLib into portals for Bioinformatics and Computational Chemistry applications, based on the popular P-GRADE and Django softwares.