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Configuring Engine for SAML2

Steps required for enabling SAML2 sign on for users logging in to all Engine web apps

By default, Engine uses local authentication. An admin account is generated upon initial deployment and the administrator can manually create additional user accounts in the Backoffice (on the Users tab).

Switching to federated authentication is recommended. There are 3 steps required:

  1. In Backoffice, create a new SAML2 Identity provider entry

  2. In your organisation's SAML2 Identity provider dashboard (e.g. Azure AD, ADFS, Auth0), create the SAML2 Service provider for entry for Engine

  3. Back in Backoffice, update the SAML2 Identity provider entry with the new details retrieved from step 2

Prerequisites

  1. The domain where users will visit to login must exist as a valid DNS entry

  2. Browsers should consider the domain secure: Valid SSL certificates should be in place and served by either your load balancer or the web server in front of Engine.

Step 1: Add a new SAML2 authentication source

  1. Login as an admin to backoffice (https://<engine-url>/backoffice/\

  2. On the Domains tab, select the Domain that represents the URL you wish to enable SAML2 for.

  3. In the Authentication section click "Add new", select "SAML2 / ADFS"

  4. In the "New Authentication Source" Window, 1. Enter a descriptive Name that represents your SAML2 Identity provider, e.g. "MyCompany ADFS" 2. Enter some temporary text (any text) into the "IDP Target URL" field. It will be edited later with the correct details. 3. Enter some temporary text (any text) into the "Assertion URL" field. It will be edited later with the correct details. 4. Paste the below default text into Request Attributes:

         [
         {
          "name": "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claimsclaims/objectidentifier",
          "name_format": "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic",
          "friendly_name": "Unique ID"
         },
         {
             "name": "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress",
             "name_format": "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic",
             "friendly_name": "E-Mail Address"
         },
         {
             "name": "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname",
             "name_format": "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic",
             "friendly_name": "Given Name"
         },
         {
             "name": "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/surname",
             "name_format": "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic",
             "friendly_name": "Surname"
         }
     ]

    1. Paste the below default text into Attribute Statements:

        {
      "email": [
          "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress"
      ],
      "first_name": [
          "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname"
      ],
      "last_name": [
          "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/surname"
      ],
      "login_name": [
          "http://schemas.microsoft.com/identity/claims/objectidentifier"
      ]
  }

  5. Click Save. The authentication source will be saved with some default values.

  6. The new Authentication source will now appear in the list. Copy the URL to your clipboard.

  7. Click edit on the Authentication source which was just created.

    1. In the Assertion URL field, paste the URL which was copied in the previous step, but edit it to include "/callback"

    2. Example: If you copied "https://engine.example-organisation.com/auth/adfs?id=adfs-XXXXXXXX" then set the Assertion URL to "https://engine.example-organisation.com/auth/adfs/callback?id=**adfs-XXXXXXXX**"

    3. Click Save

Step 2: Register a new service/app in your authentication provider

Prerequisites

You will need to enter these details from Step 1 into your SAML2 Identity provider dashboard:

  1. The Assertion URL (also known as the Callback URL)

  2. The Issuer (also known as the Identifier)

  3. The Login URL which is simple the homepage of the app (e.g. https://engine.example-organisation.com/app-name/)

  4. Optionally, the SAML2 Metadata URL. This can XML file contains the above information and can be fed into to some configuration dashboard (like ADFS). For the engine auth source you created above in step 1.7, the metadata url will be "https://engine.example-organisation.com/auth/adfs/metadata?id=**adfs-XXXXXXXX**"

Follow the instructions for your Identity Provider:

Step 3: Update the SAML2 authentication source settings

You will enter these details from Step 2 into Backoffice:

Prerequisites

  1. Issuer (also known as Identifier): If your ID provider defines an Identifier instead of letting you define one, Update the auth settings to use the required Identifier.

    For example, Azure AD defines fixed identifiers in the form "spn:00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" where the 0 digits are the Application (client) ID, found on the Overview page of the Azure AD Application.

  2. IDP Target URL (also known as Assertion URL): This is the url that Engine redirects users to in order to login with your SAML2 ID provider

Update Engine's new authentication settings

Start by clicking edit (pen icon) on the Authentication that was created in Step 1 "Add a new SAML2 authentication source" (top of this page)

  1. Replace the Issuer field with the Issuer from your SAML2 ID provider (unless your SAML2 ID provider already matches)

  2. Replace the IDP Target URL field with the SAML2 Identity provider login url that was generated in Step 2 "Register a new service/app on your authentication provider"

  3. Click Save

Test new settings

Now test logging in by copying the URL for the Authentication (e.g. https://engine.example-organisation.com/auth/adfs?id=adfs-XXXXXXXX ) and opening a new private browser window (e.g. Chrome incognito, Edge InPrivate session) and pasting in that url. You should be redirected to your SAML2 ID provider's login page, and if successfully logged in, redirected again back to a the engine domain https://engine.example-organisation.com/

If there are errors, the configuration on either the ID provider of Engine side may need to be tweaked to match. A SAML2 troubleshooting guide should be followed or an Engine Service Desk ticket can be raised for assistance. Once there are no login issues, this SAML2 authentication can be set as the default for the whole domain.

Make the new SAML2 authentication option the default login

Still on the Domains tab, edit the DOMAIN by clicking the pen icon at the top right (above the "Users" sub-tab)

  1. Replace the Login url with /auth/login?provider=adfs&id=adfs-XXXXXXXXX&continue= where adfs-XXXXXXXXX _**_is the ID from Engine's SAML2 login url

  2. Replace the Logout url with /auth/logout?continue=<SAML2_LOGOUT_URL> where <SAML2_LOGOUT_URL> _**_is the logout url provided by your SAML2 identity provider.

  3. Azure AD logout URLs are often in the format: https://login.microsoftonline.com//saml2

  4. ADFS logout URLs are often in the format: https://example-organisation.com/adfs/ls/?wa=wsignout1.0

  5. Auth0 logout URLs are often in the format: https://example-organisation.com.auth0.com/samlp//logout

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