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.NET Core 2.0 WSFederation middleware –ClaimsPrincipal remains empty

Last week I was testing the WSFederation authentication middleware that Microsoft released as part of .NET Core 2.0.

Here is how I configured it inside my ASP.NET Core app:

I added the Authenticate attribute to one of my controllers and when I invoked it, I was succesfully redirect to our ADFS server. However after logging in, when I was redirect back to the application I noticed that the ClaimsPrincipal remained empty.

It was only by carefully looking at the documentation I noticed my mistake:

By default, the new middleware:

· Doesn't allow unsolicited logins. This feature of the WS-Federation protocol is vulnerable to XSRF attacks. However, it can be enabled with the AllowUnsolicitedLogins option.

· Doesn't check every form post for sign-in messages. Only requests to the CallbackPath are checked for sign-ins. CallbackPath defaults to /signin-wsfed but can be changed. This path can be shared with other authentication providers by enabling the SkipUnrecognizedRequests option.

Our ADFS server was configured to redirect me to a FederationResult controller, but by default the middleware only checks request directed to /signin-wsfed.

After setting the CallbackPath correctly, everything worked:

.AddWsFederation(options =>
           {
               options.Wtrealm = Configuration["wsfed:realm"];
               options.MetadataAddress = Configuration["wsfed:metadata"];
               options.CallbackPath = "/FederationResult";

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