Websphere Single Sign-On SSO
This document will help you guide setup SSO between Websphere and miniOrange. You can host any number of applications under Websphere and pass the LTPA cookie to access the user information and the session created on the Websphere level.
miniOrange and Websphere 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 Websphere Single Sign-On (SSO)
1. Configure Websphere in miniOrange
- Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
- Go to Apps and click on Add Application button.
- In Choose Application Type click on Create App button in SAML/WS-FED application type.
- Search for Websphere in the list, if you don't find Websphere in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application via Custom SAML App.
- Click on Import SP Metadata button to upload the metadata which is downloaded from SAML TAI and upload your metadata.
- Click Next, now in the Attribute Mapping configure the following attributes as shown in the image below.
- Go to the Login Policy and select DEFAULT from the Group Name dropdown.
- Now enter the name for your app authentication policy in the Policy Name field.
- Select PASSWORD from the First Factor Type dropdown.
- To upload respective app logo for a Custom SAML App, click on Upload Logo tab.
- Click on Save.
- Your application is saved successfully. Now click on the Select button against your newly created application. Go to Metadata.
- On the 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'.
- Then click on Download Metadata.
2. Configure SSO in WebSphere SAML TAI
- Installing SAML ACS application:
- A new Enterprise Application has to be installed. On the WAS Admin console do the following steps.
- Open Applications > New Application > New Enterprise Application.
- Flag Remote file system and choose the following EAR
- /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/installableApps/WebSphereSamlSP.ear
- Enable SAML TAI using the administrative console.
- Log on to the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.
- Click SecurityGlobal security.
- Expand Web and SIP security and click Trust association.
- Under the General Properties heading, select the Enable trust association check box and click Interceptors.
- Click New and enter com.ibm.ws.security.web.saml.ACSTrustAssociationInterceptor in the Interceptor class name field.
- Under Custom properties, fill in the following custom property information:
Name: sso_1.sp.acsUrl and Value: https://<hostname>:<sslport>/samlsps/<any URI pattern string> where hostname is the host name of the system where WebSphere Application is installed and sslport is the Web server SSL port number (WC_defaulthost_secure).
Note: If you need to have multiple, similar entry points for your SAML workflows, you can specify a wildcard value instead of a specific URI pattern string at the end of the URL specified as the value of this property. Specifying a wildcard as part of the value of this property eliminates the need to separately configure each of the similar entry points.
- Click New and enter the following custom property information:
Name: sso_1.sp.idMap and Value: idAssertion.
- Click OK.
- Go back to SecurityGlobal security and click Custom properties.
- Click New and define the following custom property information under General properties: Name:
com.ibm.websphere.security.DeferTAItoSSO and Value:
com.ibm.ws.security.web.saml.ACSTrustAssociationInterceptor.
Note: The property com.ibm.websphere.security.DeferTAItoSSO, was previously used in the default configuration of all installed servers. Now it is only used as part of the SAML configuration. Therefore, even if this property already exists in your system configuration, you must change its value to com.ibm.ws.security.web.saml.ACSTrustAssociationInterceptor. Multiple values, separated with commas, cannot be specified for this property. It must be set to a single SAML TAI.
- Click New and define the following custom property information under General properties: Name:
com.ibm.websphere.security.InvokeTAIbeforeSSO and Value:
com.ibm.ws.security.web.saml.ACSTrustAssociationInterceptor.
- Click OK.
- Restart WebSphere Application Server.
- Import the SAML token signer certificate using the administrative console:
- Log on to the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.
- Click Security > SSL certificate and key management > Key stores and certificates > NodeDefaultTrustStore > Signer certificates Use CellDefaultTrustStore instead of NodeDefaultTrustStore for a deployment manager.
- Click Add.
- Fill in the certificate information from the certificate downloaded from miniOrange metadata.
- Click Apply.
- Add IdP realms to the list of inbound trusted realms: Add inbound trust using the administrative console.
- Click Global security.
- Under the user account repository, click Configure.
- Click Trusted authentication realms - inbound.
- Click Add External Realm.
- Fill in the external realm name.
- Click OK and Save changes to the master configuration.
Your WebSphere Application Server is now configured as a service provider partner for IdP-initiated SSO.
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.
- 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.
4. Test SSO Configuration
Test SSO login to your Websphere account with miniOrange IdP:
5. Adaptive Authentication with Websphere
A. Restricting access to Websphere 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 5.1
- 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 Websphere.
- 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
