I have multiple applications (made with different tech such as .NET, JSP, PHP, ... ). Each one of them have its proper login page which contacts the LDAP to verify the username and password (there is one LDAP for all the applications).
What I want is to do a SSO for these apps: One login page is to "rule them all".
The user enters his credentials once.
He chooses an app from list.
The app will load without accessing the original login page.
My additional questions are:
Is there anyway to implement a SSO solution without modifying the apps's source code?
Is there a trick to pass the username and password to the original login page and submit automatically?
You need an IdP, something like Shibboleth IdP or ADFS, which will handle the users from an Authentication Source and do that hard stuff like the login page, etc. Usually there's user management headaches here, i.e. how will users change their passwords, etc. That's where a commercial solution like Okta, Ping, or OneLogin might work better for you.
You need a SAML Service Provider for each of your apps (what SAML stack you choose largely depends upon tech used in site), or you can use something like Shibboleth SP which simply protects paths on the webserver. If the apps are all on the same one or two web servers, go with Shib, as it'll make the integration with ADFS simpler.
If you want to avoid modifying source code, something like Shibboleth SP is probably for you... it protects paths, and loads user attributes into server variables you can pull from (i.e. username, first name, last name, etc.) to render on your app.
Related
I'm currently integrating SSO into a web application using passport-saml. Still fairly new to this and trying to understand all the nuances that comes with it so I've got a few questions that I can't seem to find the answer to:
Question 1
I guess, there are two aspects to the IdP side of things. 1 for the customer and 1 for the organisation hosting the SP. So as the org that has the SP, we would need to have our own IdP account to upload our application with all the relevant SAML settings (let's say Okta for this example). The customers would then be able to find the SP from the catalogue of applications from whatever IdP they're using where they can add it and can use the generated Identity Provider Single Sing-On URL and X.509 to input into the SP's settings. I know Okta has a setting to enable their users to find organisation-managed applications which they may need to enable to be able to find our application once approved by Okta. Am I correct in thinking this?
Question 2
Would this mean that as an org, I would need a presence on each IdP a customer might use? OneLogin, Okta, Active Directory, etc.
Question 3
Are IdP's the same for the most part? As in, would I just need to implement SAML into my back end and users can just enter the Idp URL and their certificate, and this will just work for any IdP that the users might be using?
Question 4
Is uploading an application to an IdP a paid service? I've currently got a sample project that is using Okta as an Idp, got all the settings set up but I've noticed that I can submit the application on Okta as a software vendor. Obviously I can't go through it since it's a sample project and I'm also using a trial account so I don't actually know what this entails
Question 5
Lastly, as I previously mentioned, I've noticed that Allow users to add org-managed apps is an available setting for users so they may need to enable this to find my application. But I've noticed that there are thousands of applications that I can browse through on Okta while having this setting disabled. So Okta -> Applications -> Browse App Integration Catalog, I can find applications like Dropbox, etc. Is it a different process (than q5) for an application to be visible on this list?
Question 6
Is SSO at user level or at organisation level? As in, can users of an organisation have a mixture of different ways of logging in? Like, user 1 has SSO enabled but user 2 doesn't. Is that how it tends to work? Or is it more so, an admin enables SSO for the entirety of the organisation whole organisation?
I'm still trying to piece everything together but hopefully I've asked the right questions to properly set this all up but any other additional information you want to share would be helpful!
Answer 1: You are correct that as the organization that has the SP, you would need to have your own IdP account (for example, with Okta) to upload your application with all the relevant SAML settings. Customers would then be able to find the SP from the catalog of applications from whatever IdP they're using, where they can add it and use the generated Identity Provider Single Sign-On URL and X.509 to input into the SP's settings. You would also need to enable the setting in Okta that allows customers to find organization-managed applications.
Answer 2: Yes, this would mean that as an organization, you would need a presence on each IdP a customer might use. Different IdPs have different ways of setting up and managing SP applications, so you would need to create an account and configure your application on each IdP that you want to support.
Answer 3: IdPs are not all the same, but most of them support SAML, which is the standard for SSO. By implementing SAML into your back-end, you can allow users to enter the IdP URL and certificate, and this should work for most IdPs. However, you should check the documentation and settings of each IdP you want to support to make sure that everything is configured correctly.
Answer 4: It depends on the specific IdP provider. Some providers may offer free or trial plans for uploading and managing SP applications, while others may require a paid subscription. It's best to check the pricing and plans of the specific IdP provider you're using to see if there are any costs associated with uploading and managing your application.
Answer 5: Yes, there may be a different process for an application to be visible in the app integration catalog. Some IdPs, such as Okta, have a public application catalog that includes a wide range of popular applications that are pre-integrated with the IdP. These applications may be accessible to all users regardless of whether the "Allow users to add org-managed apps" setting is enabled. It's worth noting that the specific process for making an app visible to users may vary depending on the IdP provider you're using.
Answer 6: SSO is typically implemented at the organization level, meaning that all users within the organization will use the same SSO method to access various applications. However, it is possible to set up different SSO methods for different groups of users within an organization.
For eg. an admin can enable SSO for all users within the organization, but also set up a separate SSO method for a specific group of users, such as contractors or partners. This way, users within the same organization can have different ways of logging in. Some IdPs may offer more granular control over SSO settings than others.
We want to use SSO for a group of apps (this will include GitLab, probably Drupal and a bunch of small apps I will write in Symfony for various tasks). We would like to currently use Google accounts to authenticate all apps, but because there are limits (I know you can increase them) on how many apps you can have and Google sometimes change what features are free, it would be good to have the option of using our own login down the track if needed.
I have used SimpleSAMLphp in the past with GitLab (using a database to store credentials) and it worked well. Is there a way that I can use the Google Auth as an IDP and have SimpleSAMLphp record the email address to link the accounts etc and allow me to add things like groups etc in to send down to the app when a login happens? I would put a password field in the login table in the database as well so that if we decide to move away from Google we can generate random passwords and continue without too many issues.
The information I find online is for using SimpleSAMLphp as the IDP for gsuite etc (we will be using general Google accounts, not ones in gsuite) and not the other way around. I also couldn't see any Authentication Modules for Google authentication. Are there any tutorials or instructions anywhere on this?
You can accomplish what you are asking fairly easily. Instead of integrating your SPs with Google directly, integrate them with an SSP idP you control, then set up your authentication page (i.e. the page redirected to by your authsource module) to be an SP for Google. Here's what that looks like:
vendor sp -> your SSP idP -> your login app -> your SSP SP -> google idP
This way you end up with only a single Google integration configured for all your vendor integrations. There are numerous benefits to this approach:
You aren't affected by # of integration constraints imposed by google
Since your vendor SP integrations are controlled on your own server, you can easily move to a different cloud-based idP for authentication in the future without having to re-integrate all your SPs
You can easily give your users alternate sign-in choices if you want.
You aren't constrained to SAML or protocols supported by Google. Many vendors still use proprietary token based authentication. These can easily be supported with this setup.
Happy to help with implementation details if you need it.
I have come across a number of articles that discuss a similar matter but I cannot find a definitive answer.
My company would like to begin using Identity Server 3, however one of the requirements is to be able to authenticate an external user without them having to manually enter their credentials.
This must be capable of providing single sign on capabilities also as we have 3 different systems and our users should only have to sign in once.
Essentially, the external user has their own CRM.
The CRM holds their username and password for our software.
They then click a button in their CRM to launch our application
This redirects them to our website with a payload containing their credentials
We call a web service to authenticate the user
It is fundamental that we do not change this process for our partners.
Can I implement a custom service provider to provide the authentication or is there some other way of achieving this? If so, could you point me in the right direction for how this can be done?
Many thanks
Craig
I would assume that you'd create a mechanism for their CRM to get a token at the time the client logs into their site and then have them send that token via url to your callback page. This would use the machine-to-machine type grant, or the client-credentials flow. Then that page could validate the token and log the user in. There would have to be some sort of unique identifier between the two systems like email or something. Just an idea.
I'm working in a company that uses Microsoft Active Directory. We have an external company that provides an internal web site for a particular project. The site is external to the company. The sign on to the external site is the user's company email.
We want a system whereby the external site calls into the organisation's AD to verify if an email address is still valid or if the user has left the company. It should be a simple call to Active Directory Federation Services or some sort of SAML interface. The call would be a simple request 'here's an email, is it valid?' and the response is either yes or no.
Our IT department are trying to tell us that it's too complicated and I don't believe them. I think they just don't want to do it.
Does anyone know how easy it would be to create a simple system that would allow an external service to do the query outlined above.
ADFS is not meant to do that. However, a by-product of using it, would be the validation you are looking for.
The first question would be: what is the authentication method of your app? e-mail and what else? password? which password? Does the app keep a database of users/passwords?
ADFS works as an "identity provider" and would authenticate users in AD. ADFS would supply a security token that can be consumed by your app. Part of the information sent in the security token could very well be (and often is) the user e-mail address (that's why it is a "by-product").
For this to work, the app would have to be changed to accept security tokens (SAML tokens to be specific). If the app is .NET based, then it is done usually with WIF (WIndows Identity Foundation).
This approach would be the most elegant and secure because the app would delegate the responsibility of authenticating users to the authority of these employees: AD.
App --trusts--> ADFS --authenticates--> AD
Setting up ADFS, etc is not super-difficult, but it is not super-simple either, and might not be worth just for this app. There are other lighter weight alternatives: open source products like Identity Server, or products like the one I work on.
Now, if all you need to do is to validate that the e-mail actually exists, the best is to send a verification message to that address with some unique code that the user sends back. This is the same approach used in many common web apps.
Agree with everything #Eugenio said - have same questions about authentication.
But if you simply want code to query an user's email address in AD, you use the AD API's.
Curious what recommendations anyone has.
I have an existing asp.net forms application that does a Forms Authentication and has identity impersonate turned on.
The application has a link to a questionnaire that I would like to develop separately in an asp.net MVC application, but I don't want the users to click on the link and be prompted for a username and password, I would like them to be able seamless start filling out the questionnaire.
Is there a way to somehow transfer authentication from one .net app to another? I would like to be able to pass stuff like UserRole.
What's the best way to do this?
If you use the same MachineKey in both applications and the MVC application is on the same server, I think that it will reuse the auth cookie and simply consider them logged in. See this MSDN article on configuring the MachineKey, especially the section on sharing authentication tickets across applications. Note this assumes that both applications are on the same server. If they are on different servers then you'll need to investigate some other mechanisms -- say generating a single-use ticket for the URL that can be used by the remote system via a web call back to the originating server who the user is. It might not need to be a full-up implementation of a central authentication system, but along those lines. Just be sure that you're using SSL to encrypt the relevant bits to help avoid man-in-the-middle attacks.
Using Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) you can achieve Single Sign-On.
In WIF, a service called a Security Token Service (STS), issues a token with claims, which can be anything you want to declare about the authenticated user, for instance his roles. In your apps you can use the Page.User, Controller.Page or Thread.Current.Principal properties to check the User claims (though if you'll only be using role claims you can use the IsInRole method for simplicity).
You can easily create a STS using the tools for VS included in WIF's SDK. The Forms authentication will be done in the STS instead of in the Web Forms site and both sites should have a trust relationship with the STS.