Attribute Release Caching

By default, resolved attributes are cached to the length of the SSO session. If there are any attribute value changes since the commencement of SSO session, the changes are not reflected and returned back to the service upon release time.

Note: Remember that while the below policies are typically applied at release time on a per-service level, CAS automatically does create attribute release caching policies at a more global with configurable timeouts and durations.

The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Required in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting may be needed to activate or affect the behavior of the CAS feature and generally should be reviewed, possibly owned and adjusted. If the setting is assigned a default value, you do not need to strictly put the setting in your copy of the configuration, but should review it nonetheless to make sure it matches your deployment expectations.

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value.

  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.aggregation=MERGE

    • Indicates how the results of multiple attribute repositories should be aggregated together. Available values are as follows:

    • MERGE: Default. Designed to query multiple repositories in order and merge the results into a single result set.
    • CASCADE: Query multiple repositories in order and merge the results into a single result set. As each repository is queried the attributes from the first query in the result set are used as the query for the next repository.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.default-attributes-to-release=

    • CAS provides the ability to release a bundle of principal attributes to all services by default. This bundle is not defined on a per-service basis and is always combined with attributes produced by the specific release policy of the service, such that for instance, you can devise rules to always release givenName and cn to every application, and additionally allow other specific principal attributes for only some applications per their attribute release policy.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.expiration-time=30

    • Indicates the global cache expiration period, once attributes are fetched from the underlying attribute repository. A zero or negative value indicates that no attribute caching should take place where attributes must always be fetched from the source.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.expiration-time-unit=

    • Expiration caching time unit for attributes.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.maximum-cache-size=10000

    • Indicates the global cache size used to store attributes retrieved from the attribute repository.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.merger=REPLACE

    • Merging strategies can be used to resolve conflicts when the same attributes are found from multiple sources. A merging strategy is used to handle conflicts for both principal attributes as well as those that are captured by the authentication attempt. Conflicts arise when the multiple attribute sources or repositories produce the same attribute with the same name, or when there are multiple legs in an authentication flow that produce the same attribute as authentication metadata for each leg of the attempt (i.e. when going through MFA flows). Available values are as follows:

    • REPLACE: Replace attributes. Overwrites existing attribute values, if any.
    • ADD: Add attributes. Retains existing attribute values if any, and ignores values from subsequent sources in the resolution chain.
    • NONE: No merging. Doesn't merge attributes, ignores attributes from non-authentication attribute repositories.
    • MULTIVALUED: Multivalued attributes. Combines all values into a single attribute, essentially creating a multi-valued attribute.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.recover-exceptions=true

    • Recover from LDAP exceptions and continue with partial results. Otherwise, die and do not allow to log in.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.attribute-repository.core.require-all-repository-sources=false

    • In the event that multiple attribute repositories are defined, setting this option to true forces all repositories to produce a person object. If any of the repositories fails to produce a person or person attributes, the resolution engine will halt to short-circuit the process, failing to resolve the person altogether.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalAttributesCoreProperties.