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Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA) for PostgreSQL

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PostgreSQL is a database which uses techniques to provide security to site-to-site connections. Also, it secures a point-to-point connection. You can enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your PostgreSQL with Active Directory as a user store to increase security level. When you enable 2FA, your users enter their username and password (first factor) as usual, and as a second factor they have to enter an authentication code which will be shared virtually on their device or in the form of a hardware token. This 2FA/MFA solution adds an additional security measure to prevent unwanted users getting access to your PostgreSQL .

Types of 2FA Authentication with RADIUS

The 2-factor authentication can be of two types depending on the applications.

• Applications that support RADIUS Challenge.
• Applications that do not support RADIUS Challenge.

Note: PostgreSQL do not support RADIUS challenge.

miniOrange 2FA authentication for PostgreSQL Login

miniOrange accomplishes this by acting as a RADIUS server that accepts the username/password of the user entered as a RADIUS request and validates the user against the user store as Active Directory (AD). After the first level of authentication, miniOrange prompts the user with 2-factor authentication and either grants/revokes access based on the input by the user.

1. Primary authentication initiates with the user submitting his Username and Password for PostgreSQL .
2. User request acts as an authentication request to RADIUS Server(miniOrange).
3. miniOrange RADIUS server passes user credentials to validate against the credentials stored in AD (Active Directory) / Database.
4. Once the user's first level of authentication gets validated AD sends the confirmation to RADIUS Server.
5. Now miniOrange RADIUS Server asks for a 2-factor authentication challenge to the user.
6. Here user submits the response/code which he receives on his hardware/phone.
7. User response is checked at miniOrange’s RADIUS Server side.
8. On successful 2nd factor authentication the user is granted access to login.

What are different 2FA/MFA methods for PostgreSQL supported by miniOrange?

miniOrange supports multiple 2FA/MFA authentication methods for PostgreSQL secure access such as, Push Notification, Soft Token, Microsoft / Google Authenticator etc.

Authentication Type	Method	Supported
miniOrange Authenticator	Soft Token
	miniOrange Push Notification
Mobile Token	Google Authenticator
	Microsoft Authenticator
	Authy Authenticator
SMS	OTP Over SMS
	SMS with Link
Email	OTP Over Email
	Email with Link
Call Verification	OTP Over Call
Hardware Token	Yubikey Hardware Token
	Display Hardware Token

You can opt for any of the 2FA methods to secure your PostgreSQL . To integrate 2FA, you can enable RADIUS authentication in PostgreSQL and configure policies in miniOrange to enable or disable 2FA for users.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)/MFA for PostgreSQL Client to extend security level.

1. Add the Radius Client in miniOrange

• Login into 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



• Go to Apps Click on Add Application button.



• Choose RADIUS as Application type and click on Create App button.



• Click on PostgreSQL application tab. If you don't find your application click on Radius Client application tab.



• Configure the below details to add Radius Client.




Client Name:	Any name for your reference.
Client IP:	IP address of VPN server which will send Radius authentication request.
Shared Secret:	Security key. For Eg. "sharedsecret" (Keep this with you, you will need to configure same on VPN Server).

• Click Next.
• Under the Attribute Mappings tab, enable the toggle if you want to Send Groups in response and then click Next



• You can refer the table below for Vendor group attributes id.
  

  Vendor Name	Group Attribute	Vendor ID	Vendor Attribute ID
  Cisco ASA VPN	26 Vendor-Specific	3076	25
  Fortinet VPN	26 Vendor-Specific	12356	1
  Palo Alto VPN	26 Vendor-Specific	25461	5
  SonicWall VPN	26 Vendor-Specific	8741	3
  Citrix VPN	26 Vendor-Specific	66	16

• Configure the following Policy details for the Radius Client.




Group Name:	Group for which the policy will apply.
Policy Name:	Any Identifier that specifies policy name.
Login Method	Login Method for the users associated with this policy.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication	Enables Second Factor during Login for users associated with this policy.
Enable Adaptive Authentication	Enables Adaptive Authentication for Login of users associated with this policy.

• After configuring the given above details, Click on Save button.
• Copy and save the Radius server IPs which will be required to configure your Radius client.


NOTE: For On-Premise version follow the below steps before testing the connectivity.



Only For On-Premise Version

Open Firewall Ports.

• In order to receive the RADIUS request, it is necessary to open UDP traffic on ports 1812 and 1813 for the machine where On-Premise IdP is deployed.
• If the hosting machine is a Windows Machine then you can follow this document.
• If the hosting machine is a Linux Machine then you can follow this document.

NOTE: If your machine is hosted on AWS, then enable the ports from the AWS panel.

2. Configure PostgreSQL Server as radius client

• Locate and edit the pg_hba.conf configuration file and perform the following commands in command line.
updatedb locate pg_hba.conf vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf
• Add the following line at the beginning of this file.
host all all 0.0.0.0/0 radius radiusservers=<MO Radius IP> radiussecrets=<radius password> radiusports=1812


• Restart the PostgreSQL service using service postgresql restart
• Connect to the PostgreSQL server using the admin account and the password set on the Active directory using psql -h 127.0.0.1 -U <username> -W <password>

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3. 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.

• Setup AD/LDAP as User Directory
• Setup miniOrange as User Directory

Configure your existing directories such as Microsoft Active Directory, Azure, OpenLDAP, etc.

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



• Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.



1. 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.
2. 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 "Write your Custom 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
Fallback 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 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.
• 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

Note: Below steps are used to enable one time or manual sync. To enable sync on scheduled basis, you should use LDAP gateway module. Read more and download the LDAP gateway module.

• Go to Settings >> Product 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.

• 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 On Boarding 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.

4. Creating User Groups (Recommended)

• AD user group
• miniOrage user group

• This step involves Importing the user group from the Active Directory and Provisioning them.
• Go to Provisioning. Switch to Setup Provisioning tab and select Active Directory from Dropdown menu.



• Select Group Provisioning/Deprovisioning tab, and toggle on Import Group option.
• Enter the Base DN for group sync and click Save.



• If you want to dynamically allocate users to the groups present in the miniOrange, then enable "Assign Users to groups"



• Now switch to Import Groups option and select Active Directory from which you want to import your users.
• Finally, click on Import button. Your group will be imported.




(The Active Directory Group Provisioning (Sync) setup is done. Now, whenever a user is created or modified in LDAP server and if the Assign Users to groups is enabled, then user group attribute from the LDAP server will be automatically synced and the user group will be assigned or changed accordingly in miniOrange.)

• Select Groups >> Manage Groups from left panel.
• Click on the Create Group button on the top.



• Enter an appropriate Group Name and click on Create Group.



• In this guide we have created a Group by name VPN_Group.
• Assign various members to the group using the Assign User option associated with the group in the groups list.



• Select the Users that are required to be assigned to this group. Then Select Assign to Group in Select Action Dropdown and click on Apply button.



• These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.

5. Customize MFA options for End-users

• To enable 2FA/MFA for PostgreSQL end-users, go to 2-Factor Authentication >> 2FA for end users.
• Select default Two-Factor authentication method for end users. 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.

. MFA Enrollment Steps

• Once the users are imported, below steps should be followed to enroll 2fa for users.
• Go to 2-Factor Authentication → 2FA Options for End Users.
• Scroll down to Inline Registration 2FA.
• Enable the option Enforce users to set up their 2FA Method on First Login.



• Click on Save.
• The end user would login into their End-User Dashboard using the end user login URL.
• For Cloud Version: The Login URL for end users will be available after setting up Organization name.

(You can follow these steps and use the login URL present in the Branding section.)




• For On-Premise version: The Login URL will be the same as of Admin Login URL.
• After logging in with the correct credentials for the first time, the end user would be prompted to setup their 2FA method.



• Configure any 2FA method that you want. You can explore the guide to setup 2FA methods here .
• After successfully configuring the 2FA, the end user would be prompted for the setting up Security Question as the alternate MFA method.
• Configure the Security Questions and click on Save.



• To prevent the end users from configuring Security Questions as the alternate MFA method, go to Setup 2FA → 2FA Options for End Users.
• Enable the option Skip Alternate Login Method (KBA) Configuration during Inline Registration.



• Click on Save.

6. Add Another Policy (Optional)

• Here, we will configure a policy for the User Group that we created in the Step 4 and associate it with the PostgreSQL VPN Application.
• Click on Policies tab >> App Login Policy.



• Click on Add Policy tab.
• In Application section, select the RADIUS App that we configured earlier in Step 1.
• Select the required User Group in Group Name and enter the Policy name.
• In this guide, we will configure a Password Only policy for "VPN_Group", so that only the VPN_Group members can access VPN Services without a Second Factor.
• Once done with the policy settings, click on Save to Add Policy.

7. Test 2FA for PostgreSQL Login

• Connect to your Postgres database using either the CLI or pgAdmin.
• Enter your username.
• When prompted for your password, enter your password with the 2-Factor Authentication code appended to it. For e.g., if your password is 'password', and the 2FA code is 412324, then enter this when prompted for the password - 'password412324'
• After successful authentication, you'll be connected to your Postgres database.

Further References

• Integrate 2FA/MFA for other VPN Clients
• What is MFA?
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA) for Oracle DB
• Two Factor Authentication - 2FA for Dizzion