AEM 6.5: SAML authentication results in white screen after migration

After migration to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) 6.5 LTS, SAML/SSO authentication can appear to succeed but leave the user on a white screen because AEM returns HTTP 204 No Content for the SAML POST request. To resolve this issue, review the SAML authentication handler configuration and add or update the CORS policy so the identity provider can post to the SAML login endpoint.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) 6.5 LTS

Issue and symptoms

After you migrate to AEM 6.5 LTS, SAML/SSO authentication on an author environment appears to succeed, but the user sees a white screen instead of the expected start page.

  • The authentication process completes on the identity provider side.
  • The browser shows a white screen after sign-in.
  • The most recent network request has the following values.
Request path: /content/saml_login Request method: POST Status code: 204 No Content
  • The expected redirect to /aem/start.html does not occur.
  • Re-uploading the IdP certificate and resetting the trust store does not resolve the issue.

Resolution resolution

Try the following steps to resolve the issue:

  1. Add or update a com.adobe.granite.cors.impl.CORSPolicyImpl configuration so the identity provider origin can send a POST request to /content/saml_login, because if this cross-origin request is not allowed, AEM returns HTTP 204 before the SAML authentication handler processes the response.

    allowedpaths = .*/saml_login alloworigin = https://< idp-origin>

  2. Update the SAML authentication handler configuration so path includes the correct SAML login endpoint, defaultRedirectUrl points to /aem/start.html or the intended landing page, and idpCertAlias points to the correct IdP certificate alias.

  3. Re-import the IdP certificate or recreate the trust store if the configured certificate or alias is incorrect, and update the SAML configuration to reference the correct alias so AEM can validate the SAML response correctly.

  4. Test the sign-in flow again and confirm that AEM redirects the user to the configured landing page instead of returning HTTP 204 with a white screen.

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