• Home
• App Integrations
• MFA Integrations
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Zoho

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Zoho

---

Zoho 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an additional layer of security in which a user or an organizational employee have to provide two factors to gain access to the Zoho account. With Zoho TFA being enabled, anyone trying to login to your Zoho account from an unrecognized computer/device must provide additional authorization. Authentication starts with a user submitting his traditional username and password. Once the user successfully gets authenticated with the 1st step verification, configured 2FA (OTP over SMS, Push Notifications, Yubikey, TOTP, Google Authenticator etc) method prompts for 2nd-step verification. After successfully authenticating with both of the steps a user is granted with the access to the Zoho account. This extra layer prevents the unauthorized person from accessing the resources even if cyber attackers get to know your credentials.

miniorange provides 15+ authentication methods and solutions for various use cases. It allows users and organizations to set up certain authentication and settings which includes password restrictions, restricting sign-in methods, as well as other security settings. miniorange also makes way for authentication apps that support Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy 2-Factor authentication app and our own miniorange Authenticator app.

Pre-requisite

Validate your Zoho domain (skip this step if you already have a verified Zoho domain)

• Login to your Zoho account and access Zoho Mail.
• Click on Control Panel and select Mail and Docs.



• Go to Domains, click on Add Domain and add your domain.



• In the list, click the icon under the Verified column for your domain to validate it.



• Follow the steps specified on the page that opens up and after that click on Verify to validate your domain.

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

1. Configure Zoho in miniOrange

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



• In Choose Application Type click on SAML/WS-FED application type.



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

• Enter the SP Entity ID as https://accounts.zoho.com/samlresponse/your_domain.com.
• Enter the ACS URL as https://accounts.zoho.com/samlresponse/your_domain.com
• Select the E-Mail Address from the Name ID dropdown.
• You can add additional attributes using add attribute option.



• Go to the Add Policy and select DEFAULT from the Group Name dropdown.
• Now enter the Zoho in the Policy Name field.
• Select PASSWORD from the First Factor Type dropdown.
• Click on Save to configure Zoho.



• Click on Metadata link to download the metadata which will be required later. Click on Link to see the IDP initiated SSO link for Zoho.



• Click on Download Metadata to download the metadata file which you will require in Step 3.

2. Configure SSO in Zoho

• Login to your Zoho domain as the Account Administrator and access Zoho Mail.
• Click on Control Panel and select Mail and Docs.



• Go to SAML Authentication and enter the details as shown:




Login URL	Enter the SAML Login URL that you got from Step 1.
Logout URL	Enter the SAML Logout URL that you got from Step 1.
Change Password URL	https://login.xecurify.com/moas/idp/samlsso
PublicKey	Click on Get key From File and select the certificate downloaded earlier.
Algorithm	RSA

• Click on OK to save the SAML SSO Settings.

3. Configure 2FA for Zoho

3.1: Configure 2FA for miniOrange Admin Dashboard.

• From your miniOrange Dashboard in the left navigation bar, select 2- Factor Authentication, click on Configure 2FA.




• Choose any 2FA method you want to configure.
• Let's say you want to configure OTP over SMS
• Click on OTP over SMS





• Now add your mobile number on which you want to receive the OTP.
• Then click on Save.





• Now as shown in the above image, OTP over SMS is your Active 2FA method.
• Enable Prompt for second factor during signin to your console.
• Then click on Save.



• To verify the configuration login again.
• You will be asked for Username and password then it is redirected to below page:
• Enter the OTP received on the phone and click on verify.



• If you are redirected to your dashboard, you have successfully configured OTP over SMS as your 2FA method.
• Similarly you can configure rest of the 2FA methods for miniOrange dashboard by following this guide.
• To configure 2FA methods for end-users, You can find the guide here.

3.2: Enable 2FA for Users of Zoho application.

• To enable 2FA for Users of Zoho application. Go to Policies >> App Authentication Policy
• Click on Edit against the configured application



• Enable the Enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA) option.



• Click on Save.

4. Login with miniOrange

• Go to your Zoho Domain. It will redirect you to miniOrange Single Sign-On Service console.



• Enter your miniOrange login credentials and click on Login.
• Since we have Two-factor authentication(2FA) enabled, you will be prompted to register for it. It's a one time process.
• Configure your basic details.



• Configure any authentication method of your choice.



• After successful registration, you will be logged in to your Zoho account.
• Now we have Two-factor authentication enabled.
• To verify your Two-factor authentication(2FA) configuration, go to your Zoho Domain. You will be redirected to miniOrange login console.



• Enter your login credentials, and click on login. It will prompt to verify yourself against the configured 2fa method.
  e.g. If you have configured OTP over SMS, after login into Zoho it will prompt for OTP.



• Enter the OTP received in your phone, after successful 2fa verification, you will be redirected to the Zoho dashboard.

5. Adaptive Authentication with Zoho

A. Restricting access to Zoho with IP Blocking

You can use adaptive authentication with Zoho 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 behaviour Change and Challenge Type for user from the Action for behaviour Change Section.





Action for behaviour 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 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.)
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 Zoho.

• 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” textbox.


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.

External References

• Learn more about 2FA (2 factor authentication)
• Configure 2 factor authentication for Zoho