• Home
• App Integrations
• Single Sign-On Integrations
• Zendesk Single Sign-On

Zendesk SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration

---

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, select SAML/WS-FED from the application type 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.

• In Basic Settings tab, tab fill the following details:

Application 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
Sign Response	ON




• Click Next, now in the Attribute Mapping add and configure the attributes.



• 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, click on Show Metadata Details and choose either of the two Metadata options :
  • 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'.
  • 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'.
  
  
  
  • Keep SAML Login URL , SAML Logout URL and click on the Download Certificate button to download the certificate which you will require in Step 2.
  

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:

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



• Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.



• 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 LDAP Display Name and LDAP 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 Authentication 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 Provisioning tab.

User Import and Provisioning from AD

• If you want to set up provisioning, click here for detailed information. For now, we are skipping this step by clicking Skip on Provisioning.

Attributes Mapping from AD

• By default userName, firstName, lastName, email are configured. Scroll down and click on Save Configurations. 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

Test Connections

• You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Connections and click on it.



• 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.

Test Attribute Mapping

• You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Attribute Mapping and click on it.



• A pop-up will appear to add the username. After clicking Test, you will see the Test Attribute Mapping Result.

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 Blocking

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 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.





Action for behavior Change Options :




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




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 12 more methods.
KBA (Knowledge-based authentication)	The System will ask user for 2 of 3 questions he has configured in his Self Service Console. Only after right answer to both questions user is allowed to proceed further.
OTP over Alternate Email	User will receive a OTP on the alternate email he has configured threw Self Service Console. Once user provides the correct OTP he is allowed to proceed further.



• Now Enable Enable IP Restriction option from the IP RESTRICTION CONFIGURATION section to configure custom IP range.



• Select the Action you want to perform if the IP address is out of the range. i.e. Allow, Challenge & Deny.
• Specify the IP Address range for which you want above setting to reflect. You can add more than one IP Address ranges by clicking on following button +.
• Scroll 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 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.




• 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 behavior Change.)
1. Challenge: The user needs to verify himself using any of the three methods mentioned in table in step 5.1
2. 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 Zendesk.

• Login to Self Service Console >> Policies.
• Click on Edit option for predefined 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.

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 : Admin need to enable this option to enable receiving alerts for different alert options.
  
  
  

Option	Description
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” switch button.




• In case you want multiple admins 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 Administrators email to receive alerts label. To enable alerts for the end-users, you can enable the “End Users” switch button.
• In case you want to customize the deny message that end user receive in case his authentication denied due to adaptive policy, you can do this by entering the message inside “Deny message for Adaptive Authentication” text box.


How to add a trusted Device

1. 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