liberty-id-ff

liberty-id-ff
Name	liberty-id-ff
Developer	LibertyID Project
Released	2021
Latest release	2024
Programming language	Rust, Python
License	MIT
Website	LibertyID.org

liberty-id-ff

liberty-id-ff is an open-source federated identity framework implemented for privacy-preserving authentication and decentralized identifiers. It targets deployments across cloud platforms and on-premises infrastructures, emphasizing standards compliance with W3C Verifiable Credentials, IETF DID specifications, and OpenID Connect. The project is used by public sector pilots, nonprofit initiatives, and research labs aiming to integrate cryptographic identity with consented data sharing.

Overview

liberty-id-ff was initiated by the LibertyID Project and a coalition of contributors from academia and industry, including researchers affiliated with MIT, Stanford University, University of Oxford, Harvard University, and ETH Zurich. Early funding and governance involved stakeholders such as Mozilla Foundation, Linux Foundation, Internet Society, and national labs like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The architecture draws on prior work from OpenID Foundation, Kantara Initiative, and standards produced by World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force. Pilot adopters include municipal pilots in Barcelona, healthcare consortia in Boston, and financial trials coordinated with Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

Design and Features

liberty-id-ff combines decentralized identifiers with selective disclosure by integrating W3C Verifiable Credentials, IETF DIDs, and OpenID Connect flows. Core modules implement cryptographic primitives from RFC 8032 (Ed25519), NIST-recommended curves, and zero-knowledge proof techniques inspired by research groups at Princeton University and University of Cambridge. Feature highlights include credential issuance interoperable with Sovrin and Hyperledger Indy, wallet interoperability with Microsoft and Google mobile wallets, and attestation flows compatible with FIDO Alliance authenticators. The framework supports multisignature policies influenced by work from Bitcoin and Ethereum multisig paradigms, as well as revocation modeled on X.509 CRLs and OCSP patterns used by DigiCert and Let's Encrypt.

Installation and Configuration

Deployments typically use container orchestration stacks involving Docker, Kubernetes, and service mesh integrations with Istio or Linkerd. Installation guides reference continuous integration patterns from Jenkins, GitLab CI, and GitHub Actions pipelines. Configuration templates include presets for cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, plus on-premises instructions for virtualization platforms like VMware ESXi and Proxmox VE. Administrators are advised to align certificate management with Let's Encrypt or enterprise PKI from Entrust and integrate secrets management via HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.

Usage and Workflow

Typical workflows model credential issuance, presentation, and verification: an issuer organization such as UNICEF or Red Cross issues a verifiable credential to a holder using a digital wallet; the holder presents proofs to a relying party like World Bank, European Commission, or private services at PayPal and Stripe. The workflow leverages DID resolution using decentralized ledgers or registries including Hyperledger Fabric, Sovrin Network, Corda, and public chains such as Ethereum and Polygon. Integrations for identity assurance reference frameworks from NIST Special Publications and eIDAS guidelines, enabling compliance with sectoral regimes applied by agencies like Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and HM Revenue & Customs.

Compatibility and Integrations

liberty-id-ff provides adapters for enterprise identity providers like Okta, Auth0, Ping Identity, and Azure Active Directory. It offers connectors for directory services including Active Directory and OpenLDAP, and for attribute exchange protocols exemplified by SAML and SCIM. Data portability and analytics hooks integrate with platforms such as Snowflake, Splunk, and Elastic Stack, while event streaming uses Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ. For mobile and browser support, liberty-id-ff has SDKs compatible with iOS, Android, and frameworks from React Native and Electron.

Security and Privacy Considerations

Security design relies on best practices promulgated by OWASP and cryptographic reviews from research groups at California Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University. Privacy-preserving features include selective disclosure, minimal disclosure practices promoted by Privacy International, and consent management aligned with regulations like GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act. Threat models consider adversaries described in literature from NIST and ENISA, addressing risks such as key compromise, replay attacks, and correlation attacks. Hardening recommendations cover hardware security modules from Yubico and Thales, secure boot chains inspired by TPM specifications, and incident response coordination with entities such as CERT-EU and national Computer Emergency Response Teams.

Development and Maintenance

The project follows open governance and contribution workflows hosted on GitHub with continuous integration pipelines referencing Travis CI and CircleCI. Contributors include engineers from Red Hat, IBM, Google, and startups incubated by Y Combinator. Roadmaps align with standards bodies including W3C and IETF working groups, and interoperability testbeds run in collaboration with Hyperledger and the Decentralized Identity Foundation. Release management uses semantic versioning practices adopted by Semantic Versioning community and packaging distributions for ecosystems like crates.io and PyPI.

Category:Identity management software