Outlook Web Access (OWA) Single Sign-On SSO
OWA SSO (Single Sign-On) solution by miniOrange provides SSO to your Outlook Web Access Application and exchange server for secure SSO login. With miniOrange’s OWA SSO configuration, your users will be able to login to Outlook Web Access with your existing IDP credentials. miniOrange’s Outlook web access SSO provides IDP integration with ADFS, Okta, Onelogin, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, AWS Cognito etc. You can also connect miniOrange’s solution with Active Directory, LDAP, Google or use miniOrange as your directory in the cloud. We support multiple protocols like SAML,OAuth, LDAP, OIDC etc.
miniOrange and Outlook Web Access (OWA) 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, Azure AD, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Shibboleth, Ping, Okta, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more.
Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for Outlook Web Access (OWA) Single Sign-On (SSO)
1. Configure Exchange Gateway in miniOrange IdP
- Login into miniOrange dashboard from the Admin Console.
- From the left side menu, click on Apps → Manage Apps.

- 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 your application from the list, if your application is not found. Search for "custom" and you can set up your app via Custom SAML App.

- Configure Basic Settings for App:
- Custom Application Name: App name you like to provide. E.g. Custom SAML App.
- SP Entity ID or Issuer: Enter SP Entity ID / Issuer that would uniquely identify the Exchange Gateway.
Note that the same value would need to be configured in the Exchange Gateway in the next steps.
https://myhost/exchangegateway/
- ACS URL: Enter ACS (Assertion Consumer Service) URL in the following format:
https://myhost/exchangegateway/login.php, where https://myhost is the hostname of the server hosting the Exchange Gateway.

- Configure Attribute Mapping:
- Select the attribute name with which you want to log in your application in Name ID field from the dropdown.
eg. Username, Email, etc.
- Enter Name ID format such as E-mail address, nameid, etc in Name ID Format.
- Attributes can be mapped using the Add Attribute tab.
- Add attributes such as Email, Full name, etc. with its corresponding value as per shown in image.
- Multiple attributes can be added using icons.

- Create an appropriate policy for the SAML Application.
- Group Name : Select an appropriate Group Name from the dropdown.
- Policy Name: Policy name you like to provide.
- Login Method: Select Appropriate method from the dropdown.

- Click on Save.
- To upload respective app logo for a Custom SAML App, click on Upload Logo tab.

- Click on Save.
2. Configure miniOrange Exchange Gateway
Pre-requisites:
- PHP >=5.4: Official PHP installation guide
- PHP LDAP Extension: Quick miniOrange guide to enable php-ldap extension
- OpenSSL libraries
- PHP DOM extension
- Setup miniOrange Exchange Gateway
- Download Exchange Gateway. It can be deployed on any web server(Apache/IIS) on any
OS.
- Extract the zip file in the web applications directory (/var/www/html for
Linux or c:\inetpub\wwwroot IIS on WIndows servers)
Configure AD/LDAP Connection for Exchange Gateway (LdapUtils.php) :
- Configure server_name, ldap_bind_dn, ldap_bind_password, search_filter, search_base attributes.

Configure miniOrange as IdP for the Exchange Gateway (SamlConstants.php) :
- From the SAML app created in the 1st step, go to metadata details.

- Choose ‘Information required to authenticate VIA External IDPS’.
- Update SAML Login URL, SAML Logout URL, X.509 Certificate, IdP Entity ID or Issuer in SamlConstants.php file from the above metadata details.

Configure Exchange/OWA as application on Exchange Gateway (WsFedConstants.php)
Configure OWA/ECP base URL here.
Outlook URL: https://Exchange Base URL/owa
E.g.:https://mail.miniorange.com/owa
Exchange Control Panel URL: https://Exchange Base URL/ecp
E.g.:https://mail.miniorange.com/ecp

3. Configure Exchange / OWA for Sign-On using miniOrange and Exchange Gateway
- Add Signing certificate (obtained in above step) to the Trusted People store
on the Client Access Server using the steps below:
- Open WsFedConstants.php copy the public key certificate into a new file
and name it exchange-gateway.crt
- Got to Management Console. Open run dialog (Win + R) and type mmc and press enter.
- In Management Console, go to File > Add or Remove Snap-ins (Ctrl + M).
- Search for Certificates on the left side and press Add.
- In the Certificate Snap In window, select Computer account and press Next. Then select Local Computer and press Finish.
- You will see an entry for Certificates (Local Computer) in the right pane. Click OK to close the Add or Remove Snap-ins window.
- You will see a branch named Certificates created under Console Root. Expand the Certificates branch and select Trusted People.
- Right click on Trusted People > Find > Import and click on Next.
- Choose the location of the exchange-gateway.crt file you created above and click on Next, again Next and Finish.
- You have successfully added a Signing Certificate to Trusted People. Now close
Management Console and choose No on the Save data prompt.
- Execute the commands on the Client Access Server using the Exchange Management
Shell.
$uris=@("https://##Base URL##/owa/","https:///##Base URL##/ecp/","https:///##Base
URL##/owa","##Base URL##/ecp")
- In the above command, ##Base URL## is the exchange/OWA host. The command has both URLs: One
ending in / and the other one which does not contain a trailing slash.
Set-OrganizationConfig -AdfsIssuer "https://##Exchange Gateway
Host##/exchangegateway/login.php" -AdfsAudienceUris $uris -AdfsSignCertificateThumbprint
##Cert Thumbprint##
- In the above command, ##Exchange Gateway URL## is the host name of the Exchange
Gateway. The Cert Thumbprint is the SHA-1 thumbprint of the certificate you created
above (exchange-gateway.crt) in the Exchange Gateway (in the includes
directory).
Get-EcpVirtualDirectory | Set-EcpVirtualDirectory -AdfsAuthentication $true
-BasicAuthentication $false -DigestAuthentication $false -FormsAuthentication $false
-WindowsAuthentication $false
Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -AdfsAuthentication $true
-BasicAuthentication $false -DigestAuthentication $false -FormsAuthentication $false
-WindowsAuthentication $false -OAuthAuthentication $false
# Restart w3svc and was
net stop was /y
net start w3svc
4. Test SSO Configuration
- Login to your OWA account.
- You will be redirected to miniOrange IdP Sign On page.

- Enter your miniOrange login credential and click on Login. You will be automatically logged in to your account.
5. 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.
6. Adaptive Authentication with Outlook
A. Restricting access to Outlook 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 6.1
- 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 Outlook.
- 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