Configure Shibboleth for SSO in your Code42 environment

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This article applies to Cloud.

Other available versions:

Available in:

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Small Business

Overview

This tutorial explains how to configure your Code42 cloud environment to use single sign-on (SSO) with Shibboleth. If you have an on-premises authority server, see the instructions for configuring Shibboleth.

This article assumes you are already familiar with SSO and the SAML standard. For more information about how the Code42 platform implements SSO, see our Introduction to single sign-on.

Compatible Code42 platform components

Compatible with SSO

Code42 app for Windows, Mac, and Linux
Administration console

Incompatible with SSO

Code42 apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone

Considerations

Code42 usernames must match SSO usernames. How you accomplish this depends on how you deploy Code42 apps.
Users cannot sign in to your Code42 environment from an identity provider's website or application. The administration console supports service provider-initiated SSO but does not support identity provider-initiated SSO.
SSO provides user authentication but does not provide user management. Set up SCIM provisioning or use the Code42 administration console to manage users.

External authentication systems
Our Customer Champions can help with authentication issues caused by interaction with Code42 products. However, troubleshooting authentication issues outside your Code42 environment is beyond the scope of our Customer Champions. For assistance with external authentication systems, contact your authentication vendor.

Before you begin

Verify identity provider configuration

Make sure the SSL certificate of your SSO identity provider has been signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA).
Make sure you have administrative access to the identity provider or have contact with an identity provider administrator.

Verify network configuration

Configure your private network, Internet, and VPN settings to allow client devices to communicate with your identity provider on ports 80 and 443. Test client connectivity to the identity provider before you proceed.
If you want to use URL-based metadata exchange to configure Code42 and the identity provider to work together, make sure two-way communication is available between them on TCP ports 80 and 443. If two-way communication is not available or not allowed, you must download the identity provider's metadata file and make it accessible to Code42.
Confirm the required ports with your identity provider to determine if custom ports are being used.

Step 1: Add an authentication provider

Follow the steps below for adding the authentication provider's metadata URL to the administration console. If your organization is part of the InCommon federation, you can add the InCommon metadata, and select your organization's metadata URL from the list. Follow the steps under Shibboleth if you are not part of the InCommon federation.

InCommon

Step 1: Enter the InCommon metadata

Sign in to the Code42 administration console.
Navigate to Settings > Identity Management.
Click Add Authentication Provider.

Add Authentication Provider dialog

In Display Name, enter the federation name.
In Provider's Metadata, ensure that Enter URL is selected and paste the URL. For the InCommon federation, we recommend using the IdP-only aggregate: http://md.incommon.org/InCommon/InCommon-metadata-idp-only.xml

Use metadata URL for federations
Code42 cloud environments do not support uploading an XML file for federations. Use the metadata URL to configure the federation instead.

Click Create Provider.
Code42 automatically detects that the provider's metadata URL belongs to a federation, and details for the federation appear.

Step 2: Select your identity provider

From federation settings, Click Add an identity provider to this federation.
Select a provider from the list.
Begin typing to search the list.
Enter a display name for the provider to display to users who sign in.
If your Code42 environment provides more than one SSO identity provider, users see a list of providers to choose from.
Click Add Identity Provider.
The provider appears under the federation.

Shibboleth

Enter Shibboleth metadata

Use the Shibboleth metadata URL provided by your institution.

Sign in to the Code42 administration console.
Navigate to Settings > Identity Management.
Click Add Authentication Provider.
In Display Name, enter an identity provider name to display to users who sign in with SSO.
If your Code42 environment provides more than one SSO identity provider, users see a list of providers to choose from. They must select the provider configured for their Code42 organization.
In Provider's Metadata, ensure that Enter URL is selected and paste the URL for the identity provider metadata XML file, or click Upload XML File and select the XML file for upload.
Click Create Provider.
Authentication provider settings appear.

Provider information message

Note the following message on the dialog:
This provider will not be applied to an organization until you update the organization security settings.

Do not apply this authentication provider to organizations yet. You will apply this provider to a test organization and to production organizations in later steps.

(Optional) Code42 recommends using the default settings, but you can use Attribute Mapping to customize mappings between Code42 platform user attributes and authentication provider SSO assertion attributes.
1. Click the Edit icon.
2. Deselect Use default mapping.
3. Configure mapping settings for each Code42 platform user attribute:
  - Username: Specify the SSO identifier or attribute that maps to the Code42 platform username.
    - Select Use nameId to use the SSO name identifier.
    - Select Use attribute tag to enter a custom SSO attribute.
  - Email: Enter the SSO attribute that contains user email addresses.
  - First Name: Enter the SSO attribute that contains user first names.
  - Last Name: Enter the SSO attribute that contains user last names.
4. Click Save.
(Optional) Local Users displays the current user. If there are any other users you want to exempt from using this authentication provider to log in, enter them here.

Step 2: Prepare Shibboleth

There are two ways to exchange metadata between your Code42 environment and the Shibboleth identity provider:

If two-way communication is possible between Shibboleth and your {{c42cloud}} instance, use URL-based metadata exchange. This method periodically retrieves metadata from a given URL and stores the metadata file locally, so it can be used if the remote source is unavailable.
If two-way communication is not available, use file-based metadata exchange.

For more information about adding a service provider to Shibboleth, see the Shibboleth documentation.

Shibboleth option A: URL-based metadata exchange

Configure your Code42 environment as a file-backed HTTP metadata provider.

Make sure the Shibboleth identity provider can access the Code42 service provider metadata URL.
Find your Code42 environment's metadata URL under Settings > Identity Management on the Authentication Providers tab.
Configure your Shibboleth identity provider to accept authentication requests from your Code42 environment.
- Edit the file ${Shibboleth}/conf/relying-party.xml.
- Add or modify the MetadataProvider element for your Code42 environment.
```
<MetadataProvider xsi:type="FileBackedHTTPMetadataProvider" xmlns="urn:mace:shibboleth:2.0:metadata"
                  id="Code42_Environment"
                  metadataURL="https://crashplan.com/api/SsoAuthSpMetadata?registrationkey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
                  backingFile="/tmp/idp-metadata.xml" />
```
  Set the following values by modifying the text between the quotes:
  - id: A name for your Code42 environment.
  - metadataURL: Your Code42 environment's service provider metadata URL.
  - backingFile: The path to the backup copy of the service provider metadata file on the identity provider.

Shibboleth option B: File-based metadata exchange

Configure Code42 as a filesystem metadata provider.

Download the Code42 service provider metadata file, and upload it to the identity provider.
The service provider metadata file is located in the administration console in the authentication provider details.
Configure your Shibboleth identity provider to accept authentication requests from Code42.
- Edit the file ${Shibboleth}/conf/relying-party.xml.
- Add or modify the MetadataProvider element.
```
<MetadataProvider xsi:type="FilesystemMetadataProvider" xmlns="urn:mace:shibboleth:2.0:metadata"
                  id="Code42_Environment"
                  metadataFile="/path/to/my/metadata.xml" />
```
  Set the following values by modifying the text between the quotes:
  - id: A name for your Code42 environment.
  - metadataFile: The path to the Code42 service provider metadata file on the Shibboleth identity provider.

Configure your Shibboleth identity provider to sign assertions

The Code42 administration console expects assertions to be signed. See Shibboleth's documentation for more information.

Edit the file ${Shibboleth}/conf/relying-party.xml.
Add or modify the ProfileConfiguration element, for example:

<RelyingParty id="urn:example.org" provider="http://idp.example.org" defaultSigningCredentialRef="ExampleOrgCred">
    <ProfileConfiguration xsi:type="saml:SAML2SSOProfile" signAssertions="always"/>
</RelyingParty>

Set the signAssertions attribute to always.

Step 4: Test SSO authentication

Create a test user in your identity provider.
Sign in to the administration console.
Create a test organization.
Configure the test organization to use SSO.
1. Navigate to Organizations, then select the organization.
2. From the action menu in the upper-right, select Edit.
3. Click Security.
4. Deselect Inherit security settings from parent.
5. From Select an authentication method, choose SSO.
  The configured SSO identity providers appear.
6. Select the identity providers that you want to offer for the organization.
7. From Select a directory service, select Local.
8. Click Save.
Create a user in the test organization who matches the identity provider test user.
In the upper-right of the administration console, select Account > Sign Out.
Sign back in to the administration console as the test user to verify that SSO is working.

Step 5: Configure organizations to use SSO

Enable SSO for one or more organizations in your Code42 environment. If two or more authentication providers are offered in your Code42 environment, tell the users in each organization which authentication provider they should choose when they sign in.

Option A: Enable SSO for a specific organization

Sign in to the administration console.
Navigate to Organizations, then select the organization.
From the action menu, select Edit.
Click Security.
Deselect Inherit security settings from parent.

Disabled inheritance
If you disable inheritance for an organization, that organization is not affected by changes to its parent organization.
From Select an authentication method, choose SSO.
The configured authentication providers appear.
Select the identity providers that you want to offer for the organization.
From Select a directory service, select Local.
Click Save.

Option B: Enable SSO for all organizations

Modify the system-wide organization settings to enable SSO for all organizations.

Sign in to the administration console.
Go to Organizations > Active.
Click on the top-level organization.
The organization details appear.
From the action menu, select Edit.
Click Security.
From Select an authentication method, choose SSO.
The configured authentication providers appear.
Select the identity providers that you want to offer to your organizations.
From Select a directory service, select Local.
Click Save.
Under each child organization, make sure that Inherit security settings from parent is enabled.
1. Click the child organization.
2. From the action menu, select Edit.
3. Click Security.
4. Enable Inherit security settings from parent.

Step 6: Add new users that sign in with SSO

Option A: Add users in the administration console

Use the administration console to add users to an organization that uses SSO.

Verify that the users in the organization exist in the SSO identity provider used by the organization.
Make sure that the Code42 environment usernames match the SSO usernames.

Option B: Deploy the Code42 app

New users can register accounts in your Code42 environment:

Distribute the Code42 app installer to new users.
Choose Sign up for an account when you open the Code42 app.
Create an account using the SSO credentials. The Code42 app username must match the SSO username.

What to expect

Reduced authentication prompts

When a user signs in with SSO, the user does not need to re-enter credentials for subsequent authentication attempts until the SAML authentication token expires. A SAML token applies to an application rather than a device, which means that a user might need to enter credentials again when signing into a different app. Signing in to the Code42 app does not authenticate the administration console because one is an app on the device and the other is accessed via a web browser.

Losing access to an identity provider

If a user loses access to the identity provider, the Code42 app continues to back up, uninterrupted.

External resources

Wikipedia:
- Single sign-on
- SAML
Shibboleth:
- Define a File Backed HTTP Metadata Provider
- Define a Filesystem Metadata Provider