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• Multi Factor Authentication for CentOS

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This setup guide will show you how to configure SSH multi-factor authentication on CentOS using any 15+ MFA methods of miniOrange. Enabling this feature will significantly enhance the security of the SSH service on your CentOS desktop.

miniOrange provides multi-factor authentication (MFA/2FA) for CentOS Desktop Login & add an extra layer of security to increase the identity assurance and reduce risk and exposure. The users will use their existing credentials (username and password) as their first factor local authentication and then they will be prompted for entering the configured second factor type. miniOrange can connect to the on-premise AD (Active Directory) so that user will use their AD credentials to authenticate themselves into CentOS Desktop. miniOrange Two Factor Authentication (2FA) module can be installed on Linux operating systems (CentOS, Ubuntu, etc.) to add Two-Factor or Multi-Factor authentication on the top of local and Remote SSH authentication.

Step by step guide to enable CentOS MFA / 2FA for SSH and local login (Two/Multi Factor Authentication)

1. Adding app and policy for 2FA

• Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
• Go to Apps. Click on Add Application button.



• In Choose Application Type click on Create App button in Desktop application type.



• Click on Linux/Unix.



• Add App Name.



• Select Login Method as Password and Enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA).

2. Select 2FA options

• Go to 2-Factor Authentication >> Choose 2FA Options for End User.
• Disable the methods you don’t want your users to configure or use for MFA




Note: Currently miniOrange only supports TOTP Methods (OTP OVER SMS, OTP OVER EMAIL, GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR, MICROSOFT AUTHENTICATOR, AUTHY AUTHENTICATOR, YubiKey HARDWARE TOKEN ) for linux MFA.

3. Setup miniorange 2FA/MFA Provider for SSH authentication and CentOS Logon

• Download the miniOrange MFA RPM package from here.
• Give execute permissions to the downloaded RPM file using the command:
chmod a+x miniorange-mfa-1.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm




• Run the following command to install the miniOrange MFA RPM package:
sudo rpm -ivh miniorange-mfa-1.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm





Option	Description
--install	Install the miniOrange MFA
--uninstall	Remove the miniOrange MFA
--enable <sshd|sudo|su|login>	Enable miniOrange mfa for specified service
--disable <sshd|sudo|su|login>	Disable miniOrange mfa for specified service
-e	Edit the miniOrange configuration file
-d	Display the miniOrange configuration file
--enable-pl <sshd|sudo|su|login>	Enable Passwordless Authentication for specified service
--disable-pl <sshd|sudo|su|login>	Disable Passwordless Authentication for specified service
--check	Run troubleshooting checks for the miniOrange MFA setup
--test <login|sshd|sudo> <username>	Test miniOrange MFA for the specified service (login, sshd, or sudo) for the given username
--enable_selinux	Allow miniOrange MFA in SELinux Policy



• To start the 2FA configuration, run the command:
sudo miniorange-mfa --install




• During the configuration, you will be prompted to enter some details:
• Log in to your miniOrange admin account on Cloud or On-Premise.
• Click on the Settings icon in the top right corner.



• Copy the Customer Key and API key.



• Navigate to the Apps section from the left side menu and copy the name of the Linux application you created in step 1.



• Paste these details into the terminal when prompted and press Enter.



• You will be asked to enable the MFA on SSH login. If you want to enable the MFA on SSH login then type ‘y’ and hit enter.



• Testing MFA Configuration:
• Test UI Login:
  Use the command below to test the MFA for the UI login (GDM):
miniorange-mfa --test gdm-password <username>




• Test SSH Login:
  Use the command below to test the MFA for SSH login:
miniorange-mfa --test sshd <username>




• Troubleshooting Issues:
  If you encounter issues while testing the MFA, use the command below to troubleshoot:
miniorange-mfa --check




• Enable SELinux Policy:
  

  If SSH login is not working or you are not prompted for MFA after configuration, it could be due to SELinux blocking the MFA module.

  • Troubleshoot the issue using:
  miniorange-mfa --check
  
  
  • To fix SELinux policy issues, use the following command:
  miniorange-mfa --enable_selinux
  
  
  
  

4. Test Multi Factor Solution

• MFA module is successfully configured, you are now able to login on the Desktop with an MFA.



• If you enter the correct password it will prompt for the OTP.



• MFA is prompted after successful password authentication when logging in via SSH.



• To access the manual for miniOrange MFA commands, use the command:
man miniorange-mfa

6. Configure Your User Directory (Optional)

miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Okta, Shibboleth, Ping, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.

• Setup miniOrange as IDP
• Setup AD as User Directory
• Setup External IDP

• To add your users in miniOrange there are 2 ways:

1. Create User in miniOrange

2. Bulk Upload Users

1. Create User in miniOrange

• Click on Users >> User List >> Add User.



• Here, fill the user details without the password and then click on the Create User button.



• After successful user creation a notification message "An end user is added successfully" will be displayed at the top of the dashboard.



• Click on Onboarding Status tab. Check the email, with the registered e-mail id and select action Send Activation Mail with Password Reset Link from Select Action dropdown list and then click on Apply button.



• Now, Open your email id. Open the mail you get from miniOrange and then click on the link to set your account password.
• On the next screen, enter the password and confirm password and then click on the Single Sign-On (SSO) reset password button.



• Now, you can log in into miniOrange account by entering your credentials.

2. Bulk Upload Users in miniOrange via Uploading CSV File.

• Navigate to Users >> User List. Click on Add User button.



• In Bulk User Registration Download sample csv format from our console and edit this csv file according to the instructions.



• To bulk upload users, choose the file make sure it is in comma separated .csv file format then click on Upload.



• After uploading the csv file successfully, you will see a success message with a link.
• Click on that link you will see list of users to send activation mail. Select users to send activation mail and click on Send Activation Mail. An activation mail will be sent to the selected users.

• Click on External Directories >> Add Directory in the left menu of the dashboard.



• Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.



• STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If the active directory is behind a firewall, you will need to open the firewall to allow incoming requests to your AD.
• STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION ON PREMISE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in your premise and only allow access to AD inside premises. You will have to download and install miniOrange gateway on your premise.




• Enter LDAP Display Name and LDAP Identifier name.
• Select Directory Type as Active Directory.
• Enter the LDAP Server URL or IP Address against the LDAP Server URL field.
• Click on the Test Connection button to verify if you have made a successful connection with your LDAP server.



• In Active Directory, go to the properties of user containers/OU's and search for the Distinguished Name attribute. The bind account should have minimum required read privileges in Active Directory to allow directory lookups. If the use case involves provisioning (such as creating, updating, or deleting users or groups), the account must also be granted appropriate write permissions.



• Enter the valid Bind account Password.
• Click on the Test Bind Account Credentials button to verify your LDAP Bind credentials for LDAP connection.



• Search Base is the location in the directory where the search for a user begins. You will get this from the same place you got your Distinguished name.



• Select a suitable Search filter from the drop-down menu. If you use User in Single Group Filter or User in Multiple Group Filter, replace the <group-dn> in the search filter with the distinguished name of the group in which your users are present. To use custom Search Filter select "Write your Custom Filter" option and customize it accordingly.



• Click on the Next button, or go to the Authentication tab.
• You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Next button to add user store.




Here's the list of the attributes and what it does when we enable it. You can enable/disable accordingly.

Attribute	Description
Activate LDAP	All user authentications will be done with LDAP credentials if you Activate it
Fallback Authentication	If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange
Enable administrator login	On enabling this, your miniOrange Administrator login authenticates using your LDAP server
Show IdP to users	If you enable this option, this IdP will be visible to users
Sync users in miniOrange	Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP

• Click on the Next button, or go to the Provisioning tab.

User Import and Provisioning from AD

• If you want to set up provisioning, click here for detailed information. For now, we are skipping this step by clicking Skip on Provisioning.

Attributes Mapping from AD

• By default userName, firstName, lastName, email are configured. Scroll down and click on Save Configurations. To fetch additional attributes from Active Directory, enable Send Configured Attributes. On the left side, enter the name that you wish to release to the applications. On the right side, enter the attribute name from Active Directory. E.g., if you wish to fetch company attribute from Active Directory, and send it as organization to configured applications, enter the following:

  Attribute Name sent to SP = organization
  Attribute Name from IDP = company

Test Connections

• You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Connections and click on it.



• Click on Test Connection to check whether you have enter valid details. For that, it will ask for username and password.



• On Successful connection with LDAP Server, a success message is shown.

Test Attribute Mapping

• You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Attribute Mapping and click on it.



• A pop-up will appear to add the username. After clicking Test, you will see the Test Attribute Mapping Result.

Set up AD as External Directory configuration is complete.

Note: Refer our guide to setup LDAP on windows server.

miniOrange integrates with various external user sources such as directories, identity providers, and etc.

• Okta
• ADFS
• Ping
• AWS Cognito
• Many more

Not able to find your IdP or Need help setting it up?

Contact us or email us at idpsupport@xecurify.com and we'll help you setting it up in no time.

Further References

• What is Multi factor authentication (MFA / 2FA)?
• Setup MFA for Windows Logon and RDP
• Setup Linux MFA for SSH authentication
• Setup Ubuntu MFA for local login SSH authentication
• Setup MFA for RD Gateway
• What is Adaptive Authentication and Adaptive MFA?