One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions 6.9.3 - Okta Multi-Factor Authentication - Overview

One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions:

One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions (SPS) controls privileged access to remote IT systems, records activities in searchable, movie-like audit trails, and prevents malicious actions. SPS is a quickly deployable enterprise device, completely independent from clients and servers — integrating seamlessly into existing networks. It captures the activity data necessary for user profiling and enables full user session drill down for forensic investigations.

SPS acts as a central authentication gateway, enforcing strong authentication before users access sensitive IT assets. SPS can integrate with remote user directories to resolve the group memberships of users who access nonpublic information. Credentials for accessing information systems can be retrieved transparently from SPS's local Credential Store or a third-party password management system. This method protects the confidentiality of passwords as users can never access them. When used together with Okta (or another Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) provider), SPS directs all connections to the authentication tool, and upon successful authentication, it permits the user to access the information system.

Okta Adaptive Multi-factor Authentication:

Okta is a cloud-based identity service offering identity, authentication, and access control functions as a service. To support multi-factor authentication, SPS integrates with the Okta identity management service. This enables you to leverage an additional out-of-band factor (typically through the user’s registered smartphone) when authenticating the user. The additional factor is processed in-line with the connection, so users do not have to switch to an external application to process the additional factor. This results in a seamless and efficient user experience that is readily accepted by the users.

The One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions can interact with your Okta account and can automatically request strong multi-factor authentication for your privileged users who are accessing the servers and services protected by SPS. Okta supports a broad range of authentication methods, including software, hardware, and cellphone-based solutions.

Solution benefits

Matt Magleby, Sr. Computer Scientist at Adobe

One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions helps us meet a portion of our compliance and internal security requirements related to access management.

Using SPS together with Okta provides the following benefits:

• Easy-to-use multi-factor authentication secures privileged access to business-critical servers. The enforcement of a second-factor authentication and the availability of session recordings make access of high-risk users more secure.

• Outband authentication to protect against privileged identity theft.

• Logs and audits administrative network traffic.

• Integrates with existing LDAP user directory.

• Easy and fast deployment and implementation: a network-level solution that does not require installing agents on clients or servers.

• Can forward user logs into Splunk for long-term storage and analysis.

• Supports SSH and RDP protocols to access both Linux and Windows servers, without disrupting the daily workflow of your system administrators and other privileged users.

• Supports strong authentication methods, including SSH keys and certificates.

Meet compliance requirements

ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SOC 2, and other regulations and industry standards include authentication-related requirements, (for example, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for accessing production systems, and the logging of all administrative sessions). In addition to other requirements, using SPS and Okta helps you comply with the following requirements:

• PCI DSS 8.3: Secure all individual non-console administrative access and all remote access to the cardholder data environment (CDE) using MFA.

• PART 500.12 Multi-Factor Authentication: Covered entities are required to apply MFA for:

  • Each individual accessing the covered entity’s internal systems.

  • Authorized access to database servers that allow access to nonpublic information.

  • Third parties accessing nonpublic information.

• NIST 800-53 IA-2, Identification and Authentication, network access to privileged accounts: The information system implements MFA for network access to privileged accounts.

In Okta:

• A valid Okta subscription that permits multi-factor authentication.

• An Okta API key. You will need it to configure the SPS plugin.

• Your users must be available in Okta.

• The users must activate their Okta accounts, and be able to perform the authentication required for the factor (for example, install the Okta mobile app, possess the required hardware token, and so on).

• A factor that the SPS plugin supports must be enabled in Okta. Note that this is a global setting, you cannot selectively enable factors. For a list of factors that SPS supports, see Supported factors and scenarios.

In SPS:

• A One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions appliance (virtual or physical), at least version SPS 5.11.05.11.0.

• A copy of the SPS Okta Multi-Factor Authentication plugin. This plugin is an Authentication and Authorization (AA) plugin customized to work with the Okta multi-factor authentication service.

• SPS must be able to access the Internet (at least the services on https://www.okta.com). Since is a cloud-based service provider, SPS must be able to access its web services to authorize the user.

• Depending on the factor you use to authenticate your users, your users might need Internet access as well, for example, to use the Okta Verify Push Notification factor. Note that the Okta app generates one-time passwords (OTPs) offline.

• SPS supports AA plugins in the MSSQL, RDP, SSH, and Telnet protocols.

• In RDP, using an AA plugin together with Network Level Authentication in a Connection Policy has the same limitations as using Network Level Authentication without domain membership.

• In RDP, using an AA plugin requires TLS-encrypted RDP connections. For details, see "Enabling TLS-encryption for RDP connections" in the Administration Guide.

Availability and support of the plugin

The SPS Okta Multi-Factor Authentication plugin is available for download as-is, free of charge to every SPS customer from the Okta Multi-Factor Authentication plugin for Safeguard for Privileged Sessions page. In case you need any customizations or additional features, contact our Support Team.