Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Power BI
Microsoft Power BI 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) or Multi-Factor Authentication is the process of secure Authentication in which a user or an organizational employee have to provide two factors to gain the access to Microsoft Power BI data. Microsoft Power BI two-factor authentication starts with user submitting his traditional username and password. Once user successfully gets authenticated with the 1st step verification, configured 2FA (OTP over SMS, Push Notifications, Google Authenticator etc) method prompts on for 2nd-step verification. After successfully authenticating with both of the steps a user is granted with the access to the Microsoft Power BI resources. This additional layer prevents the unauthorized person from accessing the resources even if cyber attackers get to know your credentials.
If you are looking for achieving this using a product with top-notch features, and a dedicated team to guide you hassle-free through this journey - you have arrived at the right destination!
miniorange provides provides 15+ authentication methods and solutions for various use cases. It allows users and organization to setup certain authentication and settings which includes password restrictions, restricting sign-in methods, as well as other security settings. miniorange also make 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 given guide to setup Microsoft Power BI MFA.
Connect with External Source of Users
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Azure AD, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Shibboleth, Ping, Okta, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more.
miniOrange
Authenticator App
Google
Authenticator App
Authy 2-Factor
Authentication App
Microsoft
Authenticator App
Prerequisites
1. Sync On-Premise Active Directory with Azure Active Directory
NOTE: If you want to use your On-Premise Active Directory as a user store to Single Sign-On into Power BI then follow the below steps to sync your AD and Azure AD.
- Download the Azure AD Connect
- Run the Azure AD installer on your domain machine and follow the setup.
2. Verify your UPN Domain in Azure Portal
- In the Azure portal navigate to Azure Active Directory >> Custom domain names and click on Add custom domain.
- Enter the full domain name in the right pane that pops up and click on Add domain.

- A new window will open up with TXT/MX records for the domain. You will have to add the resented entry in your domain name registrar.

- Click on verify once you have added the entry
Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for Power BI Single Sign-On (SSO)
1. Setup a Custom Branded URL in miniOrange Admin Console
Single Sign-On into Power BI requires a custom branded URL to be set. Access to miniOrange and connected resources will need to be through the custom branded URL in the format: https://<custom_domain>.xecurify.com/moas
- Login to miniOrange Admin Console.
- Click on Customization in the left menu of the dashboard.
- In Basic Settings, set the Organization Name as the custom_domain name.
- Click Save. Once that is set, the branded login URL would be of the format https://<custom_domain>.xecurify.com/moas/login
2. Configure Power BI in miniOrange
- Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
- Go to Apps and click on Add Applicaton button.

- In Choose Application Type click on Create App button in SAML/WS-FED application type.

- In the next step, search for Office 365. Click on Office 365 app.

- Make sure the SP Entity ID or Issuer is: urn:federation:MicrosoftOnline
- Make sure the ACS URL is: https://login.microsoftonline.com/login.srf
- Click on Next.

- Configure Name ID based on the User Store you are using:
- Using Active Directory / miniOrange brokering service: Select External IDP Attribute from the dropdown and add objectguid in the text-box that appears.
- Using miniOrange as a User Store: Select Custom Profile Attribute and select a Custom Attribute from the drop-down.
- Set the login policy. You can choose to enable 2FA for login or have users login using a standard username-password.
- Click on Save to configure Office 365.

3. Configure Microsoft Online Services
- Click on Select dropdown and choose Metadata.

- Click on the Download Federate Domain Script button under "INFORMATION REQUIRED TO AUTHENTICATE VIA EXTERNAL IDPS"

- Enter the domain name that you want to federate and click on Download.
Note: You cannot federate your default "onmicrosoft.com" domain. To federate your Power BI tenant, you must add a custom domain to Power BI.

- After downloading the script, Open PowerShell run the federate_domain script using:
cd ./Downloads
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File federate_domain.ps1

- Your domain is now federated. Use the commands below to check your federation settings:
Connect-MsolService
Get-MsolDomainFederationService

4. Configure 2FA for Power BI
4.1: Enable 2FA for Users of Power BI app
- To enable 2FA for Users of Power BI application. Go to Policies >> App Authentication Policy
- Click on Edit against the configured application.

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

- Click on Save.
4.2: 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.

4.3: 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.

5. Now sign in to your Office 365 - Power BI account with miniOrange IdP by either of the two steps:
6. Configure Your User Directory (Optional)
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Azure AD, 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.
- Click on User Stores >> Add User Store in the left menu of the dashboard.

- Select User Store type as AD/LDAP.

- STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If 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 in 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 LDAP Server URL field.
- Click on 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 Distinguished Name attribute.

- Enter the valid Bind account Password.
- Click on 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. To use custom Search Filter select "Custom Search Filter" option and customize it accordingly.

- You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Save 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 |
Sync users in miniOrange |
Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP |
Backup Authentication |
If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange |
Allow users to change password |
This allows your users to change their password. It updates the new credentials in your LDAP server |
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 |
Send Configured Attributes |
If you enable this option, then only the attributes configured below will be sent in attributes at the time of login |
- Click on Save. After this, it will show you the list of User stores. Click on Test Configuration 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.
- Click on Test Attribute Mapping.

- Enter a valid Username. Then, click on Test. Mapped Attributes corresponding to the user are fetched.

- After successful Attribute Mapping Configuration, go back to the ldap configuration and enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP.
Refer our guide to setup LDAPS on windows server.
User Import and Provisioning from AD
- Go to Settings in the Customer Admin Account.

- Enable the "Enable User Auto Registration" option and click Save.

- (Optional) To send a welcome email to all the end users that will be imported, enable the "Enable sending Welcome Emails after user registration" option and click Save.

- From the Left-Side menu of the dashboard select Provisioning.

- In Setup Provisioning tab select Active Directory in the Select Application Drop Down.
- Toggle the Import Users tab, click on Save button.

- On the same section, switch to Import Users section.
- Select Active Directory from the dropdown and click on the Import Users tab, to import all the users from Active Directory to miniOrange.

- You can view all the Users you have imports by selecting Users >> User List from Left Panel.

- All the imported users will be auto registered.
- These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.
miniOrange integrates with various external user sources such as directories, identity providers, and etc.
7. Adaptive Authentication with Power BI
A. Restricting access to Power BI with IP Blocking
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.)
- Challenge: The user needs to verify himself using any of the three methods mentioned in table in step 7.1
- 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 Power BI.
- Login to Self Service Console >> Policies.
- Click on Edit option for predefined SAML 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.

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.
External References