Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On SSO

Single Sign-On (SSO) solution by miniOrange provides secure Single Sign-On access into Salesforce Marketing Cloud Business using a single set of login credentials. You can sign in to Salesforce Marketing Cloud using miniOrange credentials or Microsoft Entra ID credentials or any of your existing identity providers. With miniOrange SSO services, along with Salesforce Marketing Cloud you can also log in to other On-Premise and Cloud Applications using your existing Identity Providers/User Store (Azure Active Directory, Okta, Ping) credentials. Follow the given setup guide to integrate SAML SSO for your Salesforce Marketing Cloud Business account.

miniOrange and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) integration supports the following features:

SP Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO)
IdP Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO)

Connect with External Source of Users

miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, OpenLDAP, AWS etc), Identity Providers (like Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, AWS), and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.

Prerequisites:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is enabled under Setup by a user that is a Marketing Cloud Administrator. Access the setup tab and then create a key under key management.

Log in to Salesforce Marketing Cloud administrator account.
Navigate to Setup >> Security >> Settings >> Security Settings >> Single Sign-On Settings.
Click the Download Metadata button.

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO)

1. Configure Salesforce Marketing Cloud in miniOrange

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

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) add app

In Choose Application Type, select SAML/WS-FED from the All Apps dropdown.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) choose app type

Search for Salesforce Marketing Cloud in the list, if you don't find Salesforce Marketing Cloud in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application in Custom SAML App.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) manage apps

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: Basic Setting

On the top right of the page, click on Import SP Metadata button:

Enter the app name.
Choose File from the set of radio buttons.
Upload the metadata file that we downloaded in Step 1. This will populate the SAML required fields.

configure Salesforce Marketing Cloud Director Single Sign-On (SSO)

Click Next to go to the Advanced settings. Then select Sign Response and Sign Assertion.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: advanced settings

Click Next to go to the Login options tab. Here, you can configure the following settings:

Primary Identity Provider	Select the identity source from where you want the authentication to happen. You will see the list of all configured sources.
Force Authentication	Enable this to enforce authentication on each request to access the application.
Show On End User Dashboard	Disable this if you do not want the app to be visible for all users on end user dashboard.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: login Options

Click Next to go to the Attribute Mapping page. Here you can add and configure the attributes to be sent to the app.

NameID	NameID is the unique identifier for the authenticated user included in the SAML assertion. It allows the Service Provider to recognize and map the user to an account. Generally, NameID is a username or Email Address.
NameID format	Defines what type of identifier is used in the NameID (e.g., email, persistent, transient) so the SP can correctly map the user. If the SP does not request a specific format, the IdP can leave it unspecified and use a default.
Add Name Format	Name Format defines how attribute names are represented in a SAML assertion (e.g., as simple strings or URIs). It helps the SP correctly interpret attribute naming and ensures consistency between IdP and SP.
Enable Multi-Valued Attributes	Enabled: Commas (,) and semicolons (;) are treated as separators, so the attribute is split into a clean list. Example: roles = ['admin', 'editor', 'viewer']. Disabled: Commas and semicolons are not treated as separators, so the attribute stays as one combined string. Example: roles = "admin;editor;viewer".
Attribute Mapping	You can Add Attributes to be sent in SAML Assertion to SP. The attributes include user’s profile attributes such as first name, last name, full name, username, email, custom profile attributes, and user groups, etc.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: Add attributes

Click Next to go to the Login policy. You need to Save the Application first to configure the policy for the application.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: Save the application in the Policies section

After the application is saved you can configure the policy for that application.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: Go to Policies and Assign Group

Click on the Assign group button. A new Configure Group Assignment Modal tab will open.
- Assign Group: Select the groups you want to link with the application. You can select up to 20 groups at a time.
- If you need to create a new group, click on Add New Group button.
- Enter the Group name and click on Create Group.
- Click on Next.
- Assign Policies: Add the required policies to the selected groups. Enter the following details:
- First Factor: Select the login method from the dropdown.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: Add Login Policy

Click on Save. Policies will be created for all the selected groups.
You will see the policy listed once it’s successfully added.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud SSO: Add Multiple Login Policies

To get miniOrange metadata details in order to configure Salesforce Marketing Cloud :

Go to Apps >> Applications.
Search for your app and click on the icon ' ' in Actions menu against your app.
Click on Metadata to get metadata details, which will be required later. Click on Show SSO Link to see the IDP initiated SSO link for Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Go to Metadata link Salesforce Marketing Cloud SAML SSO

On the View IDP Metadata page -

1. If you want to use miniOrange as User-Store i.e., your user identities will be stored in miniOrange then download the metadata file under the heading 'INFORMATION REQUIRED TO SET MINIORANGE AS IDP'.

2. If you want to authenticate your users via any external Identity Provider like Active Directory, Okta, OneLogin, Google, Apple ID, etc then download the Metadata file under the heading 'INFORMATION REQUIRED TO AUTHENTICATE VIA EXTERNAL IDPS'.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) On Metadata page

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

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) Select Metadata details external IDP or miniOrange as IDP

2. Configure SSO in Salesforce Marketing Cloud Admin Account

Log in to Salesforce Marketing Cloud administrator account.
Go to: Setup >> Security Settings >> Key Management.
Click on the create button.
Select: SSO Metadata.
Enter a name for the key. Example: SFMC SSO Key.
Select: Guided Configuration.
To configure SSO in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, copy the required metadata fields from miniOrange metadata and paste them into your application.
Click on Save.
Then Navigate to: Setup >> Users >> Users.
Select a user and click Edit.
Enable: Allow Single Sign-On.
Enter the Federation ID. Example:user@example.com.

Save the configuration.

3. Test SSO Configuration

Test SSO login to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account with miniOrange IdP:

Using SP Initiated Login

Go to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud URL, here you will be either asked to enter the username or click on the SSO link which will redirect you to miniOrange IdP Sign On Page.

Enter your miniOrange login credential and click on Login. You will be automatically logged in to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account.

Using IDP Initiated Login

Login to miniOrange IdP using your credentials.

On the Dashboard, click on Salesforce Marketing Cloud application which you have added, to verify SSO configuration.

Not able to configure or test SSO?

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

4. 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:

Create User in miniOrange

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 Identity Providers >> Add Identity Provider in the left menu of the dashboard

In Choose Identity Provider, select AD/LDAP Directories from the dropdown.

Then search for AD/LDAP and click it.

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 AD/LDAP Display Name and 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 Login Options 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 Attributes tab.

Attributes Mapping from AD

By default userName, firstName, lastName, email are configured. Scroll down and click on Save button. 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

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. We will skip this step for now.

Import Password Policy from AD

If you want to import your Active Directory password policy into miniOrange, click here for detailed information. We will skip this step for now.

Test Connections

You will see a list of directories under Identity Providers. From the dropdown, select AD/LDAP Directories, search for your configured directory, click the three dots next to it, and select Test Connection.

A pop-up appears prompting you to enter a username and password to verify your LDAP configuration.

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

Test Attribute Mapping

You will see a list of directories under Identity Providers. From the dropdown, select AD/LDAP Directories, search for your configured directory, click the three dots next to it, and select Test Attribute Mapping.

A pop‑up appears to enter a username and click Test.

The Test Attribute Mapping Result will be displayed.

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.

5. Adaptive Authentication with Salesforce Marketing Cloud

A. Restricting access to Salesforce Marketing Cloud with IP Configuration

You can use adaptive authentication with Salesforce Marketing Cloud 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 Policy.

Add a Policy Name for your Adative Authentication Policy.

Select Action for Behavior Change, click the Edit link, and then choose the appropriate Action and Challenge Type for the user from that section.

Action for behavior Change Options :

Attribute Description

Allow Allow users to authenticate and use services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.

Deny Deny user authentications and access to services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.

Challenge Challenge users with one of the three methods mentioned below for verifying user authenticity.

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, many more.

KBA (Knowledge-based authentication) The System will ask the user for 2 of 3 questions he has configured in his Self-Service Console. Only after the right answer to both questions is the user allowed to proceed further.

OTP over Alternate Email User will receive an OTP on the alternate email they have configured through the Self Service Console. Once the user provides the correct OTP, they are allowed to proceed further.

Now click Edit option from the IP Configuration section to configure custom IP range.

Select Add IP if the User's IP Address is not in the configured list.

Specify the IP Address that you want to whitelist. For the IP Range other than the whitelisted one, you can select the above setting to reflect.

Choose either allow or deny by selecting the corresponding option from the dropdown.

If a user tries to login with the whitelisted IP address, they will always be allowed access.

We support IP address range in three formats i.e., IPv4, IPv4 CIDR, and IPv6 CIDR. You can choose whichever is suitable for you from the dropdown menu.

You can add multiple IPs or IP ranges by clicking the + Add IP button.

Once the changes are made, scroll down 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 Policy.

Add a Policy Name for your Adaptive Authentication Policy.

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

On the Add Policy tab, go to the Device Configuration section and click the Edit button.

Enter the Number of Device Registrations Allowed as per your requirement. (2-3 devices are recommended.)

Choose Action if number of devices exceeded (This will override your setting for Action for behavior Change.)

Challenge: The user needs to verify himself using any of the three methods mentioned in table in step 5.1

Deny : Deny users access to the system

Enable Mobile Device Restriction to block logins from mobile devices. This ensures all login attempts from mobile devices will be declined.

Enable MAC Address Based Restriction if you want to restrict access based on device MAC address.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save.

C. Add Adaptive Authentication policy to Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Login to Self Service Console >> Policies >> Add Login Policy.

Click on Edit icon option for predefined app policy.

Set your policy in the Policy Name and select Password as First Factor.

Enable Adaptive Authentication on Edit Login 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 Submit.

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: Admins need to enable this option to enable receiving alerts for different alert options.

Option Description

Users login from unknown IP addresses, devices or locations Enabling this option allows you to login from unknown IP addresses or devices and even locations.

Number of Device registrations exceeded allowed count This option will allow you to register more devices than the devices you have numbered.

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 checkbox.

In case you want multiple admin 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 Administrator’s email to receive alerts label. To enable alerts for the end users, you can enable the End User checkbox.

In case you want to customize the deny message that the end user receives in case his authentication is denied due to adaptive policy, you can do this by entering the message inside Deny Message text box.

How to add a trusted Device

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

SAML Single Sign-On lets users sign in once through your identity provider (such as miniOrange or an external IdP) and access Salesforce Marketing Cloud without a separate application password. miniOrange acts as the SAML identity provider and exchanges authentication assertions securely with Salesforce Marketing Cloud as the service provider.

External References

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Know more about SAML (SSO)