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Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Citrix Netscaler

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Citrix Netscaler 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an additional layer of security in which a user or an organizational employee have to provide two factors to gain access to the Citrix Netscaler account. With Citrix Netscaler TFA being enabled, anyone trying to login to your Citrix Netscaler account from an unrecognized computer/device must provide additional authorization. Authentication starts with a user submitting his traditional username and password. Once the user successfully gets authenticated with the 1st step verification, configured 2FA (OTP over SMS, Push Notifications, Yubikey, TOTP, Google Authenticator etc) method prompts for 2nd-step verification. After successfully authenticating with both of the steps a user is granted with the access to the Citrix Netscaler account. This extra layer prevents the unauthorized person from accessing the resources even if cyber attackers get to know your credentials.

miniorange provides 15+ authentication methods and solutions for various use cases. It allows users and organizations to set up certain authentication and settings which includes password restrictions, restricting sign-in methods, as well as other security settings. miniorange also makes way for authentication apps that support Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy 2-Factor authentication app and our own miniorange Authenticator app.

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for Citrix Netscaler Single Sign-On (SSO)

1. Configure Citrix Netscaler in miniOrange

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



• In Choose Application Type click on SAML/WS-FED application type.



• Search for Citrix Netscaler in the list, if you don't find Citrix Netscaler in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application via Custom SAML App.

• In Basic Settings tab fill the following details:

Custom Application Name	Citrix Netscaler Gateway
SP Entity ID or Issuer	This you will get from Citrix Netscaler Gateway, under Configure SAML tab
ACS URL	This you will get from Citrix Netscaler Gateway, under Configure SAML tab





• Click Next, now in the Attribute Mapping configure the following attributes as shown in the image below.




• Click on Save.

Get IdP Metadata Details to upload to Citrix Netscaler Gateway:

• Go to Apps >> Manage Apps.
• Search for your app and click on the select in action menu against your app.
• Click on Metadata to get metadata details, which will be required later. Click on Link to see the IDP initiated SSO link for Citrix Netscaler Gateway.



• Here you will see 2 options, if you are setting up miniOrange as IDP copy the metadetails related to miniOrange, if you required to be authenticated via external IDP's (OKTA, AZURE AD, ADFS, ONELOGIN, GOOGLE APPS) you can get metadata from the 2nd Section as shown below.



• Keep SAML Login URL , SAML Logout URL and click on the Download Certificate button to download certificate which you will require in Step 2.




2. Configure SSO in Citrix Netscaler

• Login the Citrix NetScaler admin interface with admin rights
• Click on Configuration tab, select Traffic Management >> SSL >> Certificates.
• Note: If case if you are using Netscaler 11.1 then select Traffic Management >> SSL >> CACertificates >>Install.
• Enter identify name as Certificate-Key Pair Name.
• Click on the down arrow which is next to the Browse button to select local.
• Select the x.509 certificate which is downloaded in step 1.
• Click on Install.
• On Configuration page, select NetScaler Gateway >> Policies >> Authentication >> SAML >> Servers tab, then click on Add.
• In the Create Authentication SAML Server form, Enter Name IDP as certificate Name.
• Enter the value from Redirect URL as https://nssp2.example.com/cgi/samlauth
• Enter the value from Single Logout URL as https://nssp2.example.com/cgi/tmlogout
• Enter User Field ( Note: It should be Name ID untill another identifier is being used)
• Enter the certificate for your Gateway VIP as Signing Certificate Name.
• Enter your Gateway VIP URL as Issuer Name.
• In the Signature Algorithm section, select RSA-SHA256 as Signature Algorithm, SHA256 as Digest Method and POST as SAML Binding.
• Click on OK .
• Go back in the SAML section, select the Policies then click on Add.
• Now, add details, Enter Name as per your requirement.
• Click down menu and select your created Server Entry.
• Enter ns_true as the value of Expression.
• Click on OK.
• On the left side, select Virtual Servers below NetScaler Gateway section.
• Locate the virtual server to bind miniOrange SAML, Click on Edit.
• Under Authentication section and unlash any existing policies, after that close the Authentication sub-window.
• Go back in Virtual Server configuration screen, under the Authentication section, select plus (+) icon.
• Select SAML as Choose Policy and Primary as Choose Type then Click on Continue.
• Under the Policy Binding section, click on SAML policy which you created earlier.
• Click on the radial button which is in left and click on OK.
• Set the Priority as 100 and click on Bind.
• Go back to Virtual Server configuration screen and click on Done.





3. Configure 2FA for Citrix Netscaler

3.1: Enable 2FA for Users of Citrix Netscaler app

• To enable 2FA for Users of Citrix Netscaler application. Go to Policies >> App Authentication Policy
• Click on Edit against the application you have configured.



• Enable the Enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA) option.



• Click on Save.

3.2: Configure 2FA for your Endusers

• To enable 2FA/MFA for endusers, go to 2-Factor Authentication >> 2FA Options For EndUsers.
• Select default Two-Factor authentication method for end users. Also, you can select particular 2FA methods, which you want to show on the end users dashboard.
• Once Done with the settings, click on Save to configure your 2FA settings.




3.3: Enduser 2FA Setup

• Login to End-User Dashboard using end user login URL.
• For Cloud Version: The login URL (branding url) which you have set.
• For On-Premise version: The login URL will be the same as of Admin Login URL.
• Select Setup 2FA from left panel. Then select any of the 2FA method available.
• For now, we have selected the SMS >> OTP OVER SMS as our 2FA method. You can explore the guide to setup other 2FA methods here.
• Enable the OTP over SMS if you have your phone number added under your profile section else click on Edit button.



• Enter you Phone Number along with the necessary country code and click on the SAVE button.




4. Test Citrix Netscaler 2FA

a. If 2FA for for End-user is configured

• Go to your Citrix Netscaler Domain. It will redirect you to miniOrange Single Sign-On Service console.



• Enter your login credentials, and click on login. It will prompt to verify yourself against the configured 2fa method.
  e.g. If you have configured OTP over SMS, after login into Citrix Netscaler it will prompt for OTP.



• Enter the OTP received in your phone, after successful 2fa verification, you will be redirected to the Citrix Netscaler dashboard.

b. If 2FA for end-user is not enabled

• You will be prompted to register for 2Fa for end-user. It's a one time process.
• Configure your basic details.



• Configure any authentication method of your choice.



• After successful registration, you will be logged in to your Citrix Netscaler account.


Not able to configure or test MFA?


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





5. Adaptive Authentication with Citrix Netscaler

A. Restricting access to Citrix Netscaler with IP Blocking

You can use adaptive authentication with Citrix Netscaler Single Sign-On (SSO) to improve the security and functionality of Single Sign-On. You can allow a IP Address in certain range for SSO or you can deny it based your requirements and you can also challenge the user to verify his authenticity. Adaptive authentication manages the user authentication bases on different factors such as Device ID, Location, Time of Access, IP Address and many more.

You can configure Adaptive Authentication with IP Blocking in following way:

• Login to Self Service Console >> Adaptive Authentication.
• Add a Policy Name for your Adaptive Authentication Policy.



• Select your Action for behaviour Change and Challenge Type for user from the Action for behaviour Change Section.





Action for behaviour Change Options :




Attribute	Description
Allow	Allow user to authenticate and use services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.
Challenge	Challenge users with one of the three methods mentioned below for verifying user authenticity.
Deny	Deny user authentications and access to services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.




Challenge Type Options :




Attribute	Description
User second Factor	The User needs to authenticate using the second factor he has opted or assigned for such as OTP over SMS PUSH Notification OTP over Email And 12 more methods.
KBA (Knowledge-based authentication)	The System will ask user for 2 of 3 questions he has configured in his Self Service Console. Only after right answer to both questions user is allowed to proceed further.
OTP over Alternate Email	User will receive a OTP on the alternate email he has configured threw Self Service Console. Once user provides the correct OTP he is allowed to proceed further.



• Now Enable Enable IP Restriction option from the IP RESTRICTION CONFIGURATION section to configure custom IP range.



• Select the Action you want to perform if the IP address is out of the range. i.e. Allow, Challenge & Deny.
• Specify the IP Address range for which you want above setting to reflect. You can add more than one IP Address ranges by clicking on following button +.
• Scroll to the end and click on save.

B. Adaptive Authentication with Limiting number of devices.

Using Adaptive Authentication you can also restrict the number of devices the end user can access the Services on. You can allow end users to access services on a fixed no. of devices. The end users will be able to access services provided by us on this fixed no. of devices.

You can configure Adaptive Authentication with Device Restriction in following way


• Login to Self Service Console >> Adaptive Authentication.
• Add a Policy Name for your Adaptive Authentication Policy.
• Select your Action for behaviour Change and Challenge Type for user from the Action for behaviour Change Section.




• Scroll down to Device Configuration section and enable Allow User to Register Device option to allow users to register their devices.
• Enter the Number of Devices which are allowed to register in field next to Number of Device Registrations Allowed
• Choose Action if number of devices exceeded (This will override your setting for Action for Behaviour Change.)
1. Challenge: The user needs to verify himself using any of the three methods mentioned in table in step 5.1
2. Deny : Deny users access to the system
• Enable option Send email alerts to Users if number of Device registrations exceeded allowed count if you want to alert the user about no of devices exceeding the limit. Save the configuration.

C. Add Adaptive Authentication policy to Citrix Netscaler.

• Login to Self Service Console >> Policies.
• Click on Edit option for predefined app policy.



• Set your application name in the Application and select password as Login Method.
• Enable Adaptive Authentication on Policy page and select the required restriction method as an option.
• From Select Login Policy dropdown select the policy we created in last step and click on save.

D.Notification and Alert Message.

This section handles the notifications and alerts related to Adaptive Authentication.It provides the following options :

• Get email alerts if users login from unknown devices or locations : Admin need to enable this option to enable receiving alerts for different alert options.
  
  
  

Option	Description
Challenge Completed and Device Registered	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user completes a challenge and registers a device.
Challenge Completed but Device Not Registered	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user completes a challenge but do not registers the device.
Challenge Failed	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user fails to complete the challenge.






• Next subsection is Send email alerts which allows us to enable or disable alerts for admin and end-users. To enable alerts for admins, you can enable the “Administrators” switch button.




• In case you want multiple admins accounts to receive alerts then you can enable the option for admin and then enter the admin emails separated by a ‘,’ in the input field next to Administrators email to receive alerts label. To enable alerts for the end-users, you can enable the “End Users” switch button.
• In case you want to customize the deny message that end user receive in case his authentication denied due to adaptive policy, you can do this by entering the message inside “Deny message for Adaptive Authentication” textbox.


How to add a trusted Device

1. When End-user log in to the self service console after the policy for device restriction is on, he is provided the option to add the current device as a trusted device.

External References

• Looking for Citrix Netscaler Gateway SSO solution
• Citrix Netscaler Gateway Login
• What is MFA?
• Two-Factor Authentication methods
• What is IAM? Identity and Access Management System Benefits