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Zendesk SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration

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Zendesk SSO solution by miniOrange allows your users to securely sign into Zendesk using their existing login credentials. Credentials here means existing Organizational Identity, Directory, Database, or Identity Provider (Azure Active Directory, Ping, ADFS, Database) where your users are stored.
miniOrange gives you easy and safe access to your Zendesk account with full control of authentication for the application through miniOrange's Zendesk Single Sign-On (SSO) solution.

In addition, miniOrange offers an easy-to-install system for Zendesk Single-Sign-On together with other Identity Access Management features. You can checkout additional IAM features for Zendesk here.

With miniorange IDP service you can Single Sign-on (SSO) into multiple applications using a single set of login credentials. You can also authenticate your users from other User stores, external Idenitity Provider (IdP) and external directories as well. Single Sign-On (SSO) integration with Zendesk prevents users to log in separately into different applications eliminating user-managed passwords which lessens down the difficulty of remembering and entering username and password repeatedly. With the help of the given guide you can configure Zendesk SSO easily.

Following are Single Sign-on Options for Zendesk :

1. Single sign-on with social and Business account

Enable Single Sign-on for zendesk account using Social and Business account such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.

2. Enterprise Single Sign-on for Users

Enable SAML SSO and authenticate using any User Store or IdP of your choice

How does Zendesk SAML SSO Work?

1. User tries to access Zendesk account.
2. Zendesk is the Service Provider here. An request is generated from service provider to Identity Provider
3. The Identity Provider authenticates the user and sends response to Service Provider
4. User is given access to Zendesk account

miniOrange and Zendesk Single Sign-On (SSO) integration supports the following features:

• SP Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO)
• IdP Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO)

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for Zendesk Single Sign-On (SSO)

1. Configure Zendesk in miniOrange

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



• In Choose Application Type, select SAML/WS-FED from the All Apps dropdown.



• Search for Zendesk in the list, if you don't find Zendesk in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application in Custom SAML App.

• Manual Configuration
• Import Metadata

• In Basic Settings tab, fill the following details:

Display Name	Zendesk
SP Entity ID or Issuer	https://your_domain.zendesk.com
ACS URL	https://your_domain.zendesk.com/access/saml
Single Logout URL	https://your_domain.zendesk.com/home

• You can also import only the SP metadata for configuration by clicking on the Import SP metadata button.



• Enter the Application name as per your preference.
• Click on File if you have a metadata file or the URL if you have the application’s metadata URL. You will be able to get all the required information from your application.

• Click Next to go to the Advanced settings. Configure the following settings.

Signed Request	Enable this to sign the saml request sent by SP. Provide the X509 certificate or upload the certificate.
Sign Response	Enable this if you want the entire SAML response to be signed.
Sign Assertion	Enable this if you want only the assertion within the SAML response should be signed.
Signature Algorithm	Select the algorithm that will be used to sign the SAML request/response.
Encrypt Assertion	Select this if you want to encrypt the assertion in SAML response and provide the algorithm and certificate for encryption.
Relay State	Enter the URL where you want the user to redirect after sign in to the application.
Override Relay state	Enable this to override the default relay state of the SP.
Logout Response Binding	A Logout Response is sent in reply to a Logout Request from SP. It could be sent by an Identity Provider or Service Provider.
IdP initiated Logout Request Binding:	A Logout Response is sent in reply to a Logout Request from the IdP dashboard. It could be sent by an Identity Provider or Service Provider. HTTP Redirect - A Logout Response with its Signature HTTP POST - A Logout Response with the signature embedded
SAML Authentication Validity Period	The time for which the authentication should be considered valid and the user should be able to perform SSO. After that, the user will have to sign in again.




• Click Next to go to the Login options tab. Here, you can configure the following settings:

Primary Identity Provider	Select the identity source from where you want the authentication to happen. You will see the list of all configured sources.
Force Authentication	Enable this to enforce authentication on each request to access the application.
Show On End User Dashboard	Disable this if you do not want the app to be visible for all users on end user dashboard.




• Click Next to go to the Attribute Mapping page. Here you can add and configure the attributes to be sent to the app.

NameID	NameID is the unique identifier for the authenticated user included in the SAML assertion. It allows the Service Provider to recognize and map the user to an account. Generally, NameID is a username or Email Address.
NameID format	Defines what type of identifier is used in the NameID (e.g., email, persistent, transient) so the SP can correctly map the user. If the SP does not request a specific format, the IdP can leave it unspecified and use a default.
Add Name Format	Name Format defines how attribute names are represented in a SAML assertion (e.g., as simple strings or URIs). It helps the SP correctly interpret attribute naming and ensures consistency between IdP and SP.
Enable Multi-Valued Attributes	Enabled:Commas (,) and semicolons (;) are treated as separators, so the attribute is split into a clean list. Example: roles = ['admin', 'editor', 'viewer']. Disabled:Commas and semicolons are not treated as separators, so the attribute stays as one combined string. Example: roles = "admin;editor;viewer".
Attribute Mapping	You can Add Attributes to be sent in SAML Assertion to SP. The attributes include user’s profile attributes such as first name, last name, full name, username, email, custom profile attributes, and user groups, etc.




• Click Next to go to the Login policy. You need to Save the Application first to configure the policy for the application.



• After the application is saved you can configure the policy for that application.



• Click on the Assign group button. A new Configure Group Assignment Modal tab will open.
  • Assign Group: Select the groups you want to link with the application. You can select up to 20 groups at a time.
  
  
  
  • If you need to create new group. Click on Add New Group button.
  • Enter the Group name and click on Create Group.
  
  
  
  • Click on Next.
  • Assign Policies: Add the required policies to the selected groups. Enter the following details:
  • First Factor: Select the login method from the dropdown.
  • If you select Password as the login method, you can enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Adaptive Authentication, if needed.
  • If you select Password-less as login method, you can enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA) if needed.



• Click on Save. Policies will be created for all the selected groups.
• You will see the policy listed once it’s successfully added.



• In the Metadata tab, click on any of the two tabs:
• Click on miniOrange as Idp If you want to use miniOrange as a User-Store i.e., your user identities will be stored in miniOrange.
• Click on External source as IdP If you want to authenticate your users via any external Identity Provider like Active Directory, Okta, OneLogin, etc. or any other custom IDPs.





• You can Download metadata, Download Certficate, Copy metadata URL or Copy Certificate based on your requirements.
• Similarly, you can get the values of SAML Login URL, SAML Logout URL, IDP Entity ID or issuer, IDP Logout URL, Metadata URL from here according to your metadata requirements.

2. Configure SSO in Zendesk

• Login to your Zendesk Admin account at https://[your-domain].zendesk.com/admin/.
• Go to the Accounts >> Security >> Single Sign-On.
• Click on the Create SSO Configuration button on the top right corner and then select SAML as shown in the image below.



• Enter SAML SSO URL, Certificate fingerprint and Remote logout URL value in the required fields that you got from the Step 1.
  You can generate Certificate Fingerprint using this link.
• (OPTIONAL) IP ranges: Enter your IP ranges. Requests from these IP ranges will always be routed via remote authentication. Requests from IP addresses outside these ranges will be routed to the normal sign-in form.



• Click on Save button to save the Single Sign-On (SSO) SAML settings.
• If you want to enable enterprise SSO with SAML for Team members and/or for End users, go to the corresponding tab, check External authentication, then click Save:
  • Team Members:
  
  
  
  • End Users:
  
  

3. Test SSO Configuration

Test SSO login to your Zendesk account with miniOrange IdP:

Using SP Initiated Login

• Go to your Zendesk URL, here you will be either asked to enter the username or click on the SSO link which will redirect you to miniOrange IdP Sign On Page.



• Enter your miniOrange login credential and click on Login. You will be automatically logged in to your Zendesk account.

Using IDP Initiated Login

• Login to miniOrange IdP using your credentials.



• On the Dashboard, click on Zendesk application which you have added, to verify SSO configuration.





Not able to configure or test SSO?


Contact us or email us at idpsupport@xecurify.com and we'll help you setting it up in no time.

4. Configure Your User Directory (Optional)

miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, 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:
• Create User in miniOrange
• 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 Onboarding 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 Identity Providers >> Add Identity Provider in the left menu of the dashboard



• In Choose Identity Provider, select AD/LDAP Directories from the dropdown.



• Then search for AD/LDAP and click it.



• STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If the 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 on your premise.




• Enter AD/LDAP Display Name and Identifier name.
• Select Directory Type as Active Directory.
• Enter the LDAP Server URL or IP Address against the LDAP Server URL field.
• Click on the 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 the Distinguished Name attribute. The bind account should have minimum required read privileges in Active Directory to allow directory lookups. If the use case involves provisioning (such as creating, updating, or deleting users or groups), the account must also be granted appropriate write permissions.



• Enter the valid Bind account Password.
• Click on the 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. If you use User in Single Group Filter or User in Multiple Group Filter, replace the <group-dn> in the search filter with the distinguished name of the group in which your users are present. To use custom Search Filter select "Write your Custom Filter" option and customize it accordingly.



• Click on the Next button, or go to the Login Options tab.
• You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Next 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
Fallback Authentication	If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange
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
Sync users in miniOrange	Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP



• Click on the Next button, or go to the Attributes tab.

Attributes Mapping from AD

• By default userName, firstName, lastName, email are configured. Scroll down and click on Save button. To fetch additional attributes from Active Directory, enable Send Configured Attributes. On the left side, enter the name that you wish to release to the applications. On the right side, enter the attribute name from Active Directory. E.g., if you wish to fetch company attribute from Active Directory, and send it as organization to configured applications, enter the following:

  Attribute Name sent to SP = organization
  Attribute Name from IDP = company






• Click on the Next button, or go to the Provisioning tab.

User Import and Provisioning from AD

• If you want to set up provisioning, click here for detailed information. We will skip this step for now.

Test Connections

• You will see a list of directories under Identity Providers. From the dropdown, select AD/LDAP Directories, search for your configured directory, click the three dots next to it, and select Test Connection.



• A pop-up appears prompting you to enter a username and password to verify your LDAP configuration.



• On Successful connection with LDAP Server, a success message is shown.

Test Attribute Mapping

• You will see a list of directories under Identity Providers. From the dropdown, select AD/LDAP Directories, search for your configured directory, click the three dots next to it, and select Test Attribute Mapping.



• A pop‑up appears to enter a username and click Test.



• The Test Attribute Mapping Result will be displayed.

Set up AD as External Directory configuration is complete.

Note: Refer our guide to setup LDAP on windows server.

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.

5. Adaptive Authentication with Zendesk

A. Restricting access to Zendesk with IP Configuration

You can use adaptive authentication with Zendesk Single Sign-On (SSO) to improve the security and functionality of Single Sign-On. You can allow a IP Address in certain range for SSO or you can deny it based your requirements and you can also challenge the user to verify his authenticity. Adaptive authentication manages the user authentication bases on different factors such as Device ID, Location, Time of Access, IP Address and many more.

You can configure Adaptive Authentication with IP Blocking in following way :

• Login to Self Service Console >> Adaptive Authentication >> Add Policy.



• Add a Policy Name for your Adative Authentication Policy.
• Select Action for Behavior Change, click the Edit link, and then choose the appropriate Action and Challenge Type for the user from that section.





Action for behavior Change Options :




Attribute	Description
Allow	Allow users to authenticate and use services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.
Deny	Deny user authentications and access to services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.
Challenge	Challenge users with one of the three methods mentioned below for verifying user authenticity.




Challenge Type Options :




Attribute	Description
User second Factor	The User needs to authenticate using the second factor he has opted or assigned for such as OTP over SMS PUSH Notification OTP over Email and, many more.
KBA (Knowledge-based authentication)	The System will ask the user for 2 of 3 questions he has configured in his Self-Service Console. Only after the right answer to both questions is the user allowed to proceed further.
OTP over Alternate Email	User will receive an OTP on the alternate email they have configured through the Self Service Console. Once the user provides the correct OTP, they are allowed to proceed further.



• Now click Edit option from the IP Configuration section to configure custom IP range.
• Select Add IP if the User's IP Address is not in the configured list.
• Specify the IP Address that you want to whitelist. For the IP Range other than the whitelisted one, you can select the above setting to reflect.
• Choose either allow or deny by selecting the corresponding option from the dropdown.
• If a user tries to login with the whitelisted IP address, they will always be allowed access.
• We support IP address range in three formats i.e., IPv4, IPv4 CIDR, and IPv6 CIDR. You can choose whichever is suitable for you from the dropdown menu.
• You can add multiple IPs or IP ranges by clicking the + Add IP button.



• Once the changes are made, scroll down to the end and click on Save.

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 Policy.
• Add a Policy Name for your Adaptive Authentication Policy.
• Select your Action for behavior Change and Challenge Type for user from the Action for behavior Change Section.



• On the Add Policy tab, go to the Device Configuration section and click the Edit button.
• Enter the Number of Device Registrations Allowed as per your requirement. (2-3 devices are recommended.)
• Choose Action if number of devices exceeded (This will override your setting for Action for behavior 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 Mobile Device Restriction to block logins from mobile devices. This ensures all login attempts from mobile devices will be declined.
• Enable MAC Address Based Restriction if you want to restrict access based on device MAC address.



• Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save.

C. Add Adaptive Authentication policy to Zendesk

• Login to Self Service Console >> Policies >> Add Login Policy.
• Click on Edit icon option for predefined app policy.



• Set your policy in the Policy Name and select Password as First Factor.
• Enable Adaptive Authentication on Edit Login 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 Submit.

D. Notification and Alert Message.

This section handles the notifications and alerts related to Adaptive Authentication. It provides the following options :

• Get email alerts if users login from unknown devices or locations: Admins need to enable this option to enable receiving alerts for different alert options.
  
  
  

Option	Description
Users login from unknown IP addresses, devices or locations	Enabling this option allows you to login from unknown IP addresses or devices and even locations.
Number of Device registrations exceeded allowed count	This option will allow you to register more devices than the devices you have numbered.
Challenge Completed and Device Registered	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user completes a challenge and registers a device.
Challenge Completed but Device Not Registered	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user completes a challenge but do not registers the device.
Challenge Failed	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user fails to complete the challenge.




• Next subsection is Send email alerts which allows us to enable or disable alerts for admin and end-users. To enable alerts for admins, you can enable the Administrators checkbox.



• In case you want multiple admin accounts to receive alerts, then you can enable the option for admin and then enter the admin emails separated by a ‘,’ in the input field next to Administrator’s email to receive alerts label. To enable alerts for the end users, you can enable the End User checkbox.
• In case you want to customize the deny message that the end user receives in case his authentication is denied due to adaptive policy, you can do this by entering the message inside Deny Message text box.

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.

Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions

External References

• Wordpress Zendesk SSO using SAML
  
• Wordpress Zendesk SSO using Oauth & OpenID (SSO)
  
• Zendesk as Oauth Idp setup guide
• Enable Single Sign-on for Zendesk using JWT
  
• Integrate Zendesk with miniOrange
  
• Know more about SAML SSO