Federation application failing with error code "Reason: SSO_NO_PROVIDER_ID (, , )"

Products

• CA Single Sign On Federation (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On Secure Proxy Server (SiteMinder)
• SITEMINDER

Issue/Introduction

We are receiving below error messages when accessing application in our pre-production environment.  The use case is SP-initiated (service provider initiated) via POST binding, and we are acting as IDP:

[2100/114575104][Wed Jul 21 2021 08:53:28][SSO.java][ERROR][sm-FedClient-02890] Transaction with ID: 26639b13-2ee82312-e5f2bda9-8c70324d-420eb6bc-48 failed. Reason: SSO_NO_PROVIDER_ID (, , )
[2100/114575104][Wed Jul 21 2021 08:53:28][SSO.java][ERROR][sm-FedClient-02420] Missing ProviderID in AuthnRequest to SAML2 Single Sign-On Service

Environment

Release : All

Component : SiteMinder Federation(Federation Manager)

Cause

The Issuer element in the incoming authnrequest (SAMLRequest parameter) was positioned below the Signature element rather than above as required.

Resolution

The SP had to change the format of the SAMLRequest such that the Issuer element appeared above the Signature element.

Additional Information

https://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-schema-protocol-2.0.xsd