Mapping SPS usernames to Duo identities
By default, SPS assumes that the Duo username of the user is the same as the gateway username (that is, the username the user used to authenticate on SPS during the gateway authentication). To identify the users, SPS uses the username (login) field in Duo, which is an email address.
If the gateway usernames are different from the Duo usernames, you must configure the SPS Duo plugin to map the gateway usernames to the Duo usernames. You can use the following methods:
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To simply append a string to the gateway username, configure the append_domain parameter. In this case, SPS automatically appends the @ character and the value of this option to the username from the session, and uses the resulting username on the Duo server to authenticate the user. For example, if the domain is set as append_domain: example.com and the username is Example.User, the SPS plugin will look for the user Example.User@example.com on the Duo server.
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To look up the Duo username of the user from an LDAP/Active Directory database, configure the [ldap] section of the SPS Duo plugin. Typically, the SPS plugin queries the email address corresponding to the username from your LDAP or Active Directory database. For details on LDAP parameters, see [ldap].
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If you configure both the append_domain parameter and the [ldap] section of the SPS Duo plugin, SPS appends the @ character and the value of the append_domain parameter to the value retrieved from the LDAP database.
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If you have configured neither the Domain parameter nor the [ldap] section, SPS assumes that the Duo username of the user is the same as the gateway username.
Bypassing Duo authentication
Having to perform multi-factor authentication to a remote server every time the user opens a session can be tedious and inconvenient for the users, and can impact their productivity. SPS offers the following methods to solve this problem:
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In SPS, the Connection policy determines the type of authentication required to access a server. If you do not need multi-factor authentication for accessing specific servers, configure your Connection policies accordingly.
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If the user opens a new session within a short period, they can do so without having to perform multi-factor authentication. After this configurable grace period expires, the user must perform multi-factor authentication to open the next session. For details, see [cache].
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You can configure SPS using whitelists and blacklists to selectively require multi-factor authentication for your users, for example, to create break-glass access for specific users. For details on creating exemption lists, see whitelist.
Configure your Duo account for SPS
Prerequisites:
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Administrator access to your Duo account.
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Make sure that you have all the required components listed in Technical requirements.
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Add users to your Duo account.
The users you want to authenticate with SPS must have an activated account in Duo. For details on adding or importing your users, see Enrolling Users in the Duo documentation.
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Enable Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for your organization.
Optionally, you can create a Policy in Duo to enable MFA only for the group of users who you want to authenticate with SPS.
For details, see Protecting Applications in the Duo documentation.
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Create an API token.
Navigate to Admin > API > Tokens, click Create Token, and save it.
Configure SPS to use Duo multi-factor authentication
Prerequisites:
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Your Duo API token.
Caution: According to the current Duo policies, your API token expires if it is not used for 30 days. Make sure that you use it regularly, because SPS will reject your sessions if the API token is expired.
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Administrator access to SPS.
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Make sure that you have all the required components listed in Technical requirements.
To configure SPS to use Duo multi-factor authentication
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Download the SPS Duo plugin
SPS customers can download the official plugin from GitHub.
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Upload the plugin to SPS
Upload the plugin to SPS. For details, see "Using a custom Authentication and Authorization plugin to authenticate on the target hosts" in the Administration Guide.
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Configure the plugin on SPS
The plugin includes a default configuration file, which is an ini-style configuration file with sections and name=value pairs. You can edit it on the Policies > AA Plugin Configurations page of the SPS web interface.
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Configure the usermapping settings if needed. SPS must find out which Duo user belongs to the username of the authenticated connection. For that, it can query your LDAP/Microsoft Active Directory server. For details, see Mapping SPS usernames to Duo identities.
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Configure other parameters of your plugin as needed for your environment. For details, see SPS Duo plugin parameter reference.
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Configure a Connection policy and test it
Configure a Connection policy on SPS. In the AA plugin field of the Connection policy, select the SPS Duo plugin you configured in the previous step, then start a session to test it. For details on how a user can perform multi-factor authentication, see Perform multi-factor authentication with the SPS Duo plugin in terminal connections and Perform multi-factor authentication with the SPS Duo plugin in Remote Desktop connections.
Caution: According to the current Duo policies, your API token expires if it is not used for 30 days. Make sure that you use it regularly, because SPS will reject your sessions if the API token is expired.