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• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web)

Microsoft RD Web Access (RD Web) MFA/2FA configuration initiates with a user a trying to login into Remote Desktop Service (RDS) either through a Remote Desktop Client (using RDP) or via the Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web) login page from his/her browser. After logging in, a RADIUS request is sent from the miniOrange RD Web component installed on the target machine to the miniOrange RADIUS server, which authenticates the user via Local AD (Active Directory), and after a successful authentication,Two / Multi factor authentication of the user is invoked. After the user validates himself/herself, he/she is granted access to the Remote Desktop Web Service.

What is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)?

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an authentication method that requires the user to authenticate themselves for two or more factors, in order to gain access to company resources, applications, or servers (Remote desktop web access). Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) means that users need to provide additional verification factors apart from their username and passwords thus increasing the security of the organization's resources. Checkout more about Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) here.

How Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web) 2FA/MFA Works?

1. In this case, the user goes to Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web) login page from his browser to connect to the Remote Desktop Service.He enters his username and password, and on submission, the RADIUS request from RD Web component installed on target machine is sent to the miniOrange RADIUS server which authenticates the user via local AD in the target machine.
2. Once authenticated, it sends a RADIUS challenge to Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web), and the RD Web shows OTP screen on browser now. Once the user enters the One Time Passcode, the miniorange IdP verifies it and grants/denies access to the RDS.
3. With this, after the user is connected to the Remote Desktop Service, the user can also gain access to published remote app icons on his browser screen, since the session has already been created for the user.

Integrate hassle-free MFA for login to stop password-based attacks. IT gets added security, and users get easy access to the apps and endpoints they need — with just their domain credentials. Always verify identities before allowing access to endpoints for increased identity assurance and reduced risk and exposure. miniOrange Credential Providers can be installed on Microsoft Windows client and server operating systems to add two-factor Authentication to Remote Desktop.

miniOrange supports following Authentication Methods for 2FA:

1. miniOrange Push (miniOrange Authenticator App)
2. miniOrange Soft Token (miniOrange Authenticator App)
3. Google Authenticator
4. OTP Over SMS/EMAIL
5. Hardware Token
6. Check out 15+ MFA/2FA methods

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below to configure 2FA for RD Web

1. Download 2FA for RD Web Module

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



• In Choose Application Type click on Create App button in RADIUS application type.



• Click on Microsoft RD Web.



• Click on download the 2FA Module link to download the module.

2. Setup miniOrange Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web)

• Install the Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web) module. Unzip the module anywhere on your pc. C:/ for example.
• Take a backup copy of your C:/Windows/Web/RdWeb folder.
• Replace the RDWeb folder extracted from the zip in C:/Windows/Web/RdWeb and refresh RD Web.
• Go to IIS Manager, Open Default Site -> RD Web -> Pages.



• Open application settings, Change Radius Server IP and secret of IDP. Once that is configured.

3. Configure ​Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for RD Web

• To enable 2FA/MFA for RD Web endusers, 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.



• Login into your End-User Dashboard using end user login URL.
• For Cloud Version: The Login URL for end users will be available after setting up Organisation 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.
• Select Configure 2FA from left panel.
• Browse through the Second factor options and choose an appropriate method to be used by the particular End-User during login.
• For now, we have selected the "OTP OVER SMS"as our 2FA method for RD Web Access. You can explore the guide to setup other 2FA methods here.
• Click on Configure/Reconfigure "OTP OVER SMS".



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



• After the Phone details are saved successfully, click on the Save button on the top bar to set this as your 2FA method.
• Currently used method is represented by green color.
• To use a particular method of 2FA, we configure that method first and then select the method and click on SAVE.
• Admin can change the second factor of the End user from the User List.



• Under Action Click on Select and then select Reset Second Factor.

4. Test Your Setup

• To test your setup, log into Remote Desktop Web Access with your username and password.



• Enter the second factor (in this case OTP token). Then click on Submit.



• You will be successfully logged-in to your Remote Desktop Web Access.

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.

• Setup miniOrange as IDP
• Setup AD as User Directory
• Setup External IDP

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

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.

6. Creating User Groups(Recommended)

• Select Groups >> Manage Groups from left panel.



• Click on the Create Group button on the top.
• Enter windowsMFA as Group Name and click on Create 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. Then click Apply.

External References

• 2FA/MFA for Microsoft Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway)
• Enable MFA for windows logon and Remote desktop protocol (RDP)
• MFA for Linux machines and SSH access
• Two-Factor Authentication - 2FA, What is 2FA & How 2FA work?
• Single Sign-On (SSO) for Pre-Integrated Apps | SAML SSO | OAuth SSO | 2FA | Provisioning
• IDP Setup Guides - miniOrange Identity Server