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:
-
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.
-
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 [authentication_cache].
-
The [whitelist source=user_list] and [whitelist source=ldap_server_group] sections allow configuring authentication whitelists and blacklists based on a User List policy or an LDAP Server policy. These two sections are independent, therefore any of the two can be configured and, for example, can create break-glass access for specific users to allow them to bypass Okta authentication.
The [whitelist source=user_list] section allows whitelisting users based on a User List policy configured in SPS (Policies > User Lists). To enable this whitelist, configure one of the use cases below.
NOTE: The user names are compared to the User List in a case-sensitive manner.
Declaration
[whitelist source=user_list]
name=<name-of-user-list-policy>
For details on creating user lists, see Creating and editing user lists in the Administration Guide.
name
| Type: |
string |
| Required: |
no |
| Default: |
N/A |
Description: The name of a User List policy containing gateway users configured on SPS (Policies > User Lists). You can use this option to selectively require multi-factor authentication for your users (for example, to create break-glass access for specific users).
Use case #1: Allow no user except certain users
To allow specific users to connect without providing Okta credentials, the User List policy should have the following settings:
- Set Allow to No user and list the users in the Except list.
- Then type the name of this User List policy as the value of the name parameter.
Use case #2: Allow all users except certain users
To enforce Okta authentication for selected users, the User List policy should have the following settings:
- Set Allow to All users and list the users in the Except list.
- Then type the name of this User List policy as the value of the name parameter.
The [whitelist source=ldap_server_group] section allows whitelisting users based on LDAP Server group membership. To enable this whitelist, configure one of the use cases below.
NOTE: The user names and groups are compared in LDAP in a case-insensitive manner.
Declaration
[whitelist source=ldap_server_group]
allow=<no_user-or-all_users>
except=<group-1>,<group-2>
allow
| Type: |
string (all_users | no_users) |
| Required: |
no |
| Default: |
N/A |
Description: This parameter defines whether to allow all users or no user to connect without providing Okta credentials. Used together with the except parameter, you can define specific LDAP/AD group(s) that are exempt from this rule.
except
| Type: |
string |
| Required: |
no |
| Default: |
N/A |
Description: This parameter defines those specific LDAP/AD group(s) that are exempt from the rule defined by the allow parameter.
Use case #1: Allow no user except members of specific group(s)
To allow members of specific LDAP/AD group(s) to connect without providing Okta credentials, type the names of these LDAP/AD groups as values of the except parameter and set the allow parameter to no_user:
[whitelist source=ldap_server_group]
allow=<no_user>
except=<group-1>,<group-2>
You must configure the name of the LDAP Server policy in the [ldap_server] section.
Use case #2: Allow all users except members of specific group(s)
To enforce Okta authentication only on members of specific LDAP/AD group(s), type the names of these LDAP/AD groups as values of the except parameter and set the allow parameter to all_users:
[whitelist source=ldap_server_group]
allow=<all_users>
except=<group-1>,<group-2>
You must configure the name of the LDAP Server policy in the [ldap_server] section.
By default, SPS assumes that the external Okta identity 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). If there was no gateway authentication, then the server username is used for authentication.
If the gateway usernames are different from the external Okta identities. You must configure the SPS Okta plugin to map the gateway usernames to the external Okta identities.
You can use the following methods:
-
Explicit mapping: [usermapping source=explicit]
-
LDAP server mapping: [usermapping source=ldap]
To look up the external Okta identity of the user from an LDAP/Active Directory database, configure the [usermapping source=ldap_server] section of the SPS Okta plugin.
If the Okta service requires the use of domain name in the external Okta identity, configure the append_domain parameter in the [username_transform] section. 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 Okta server to authenticate the user. For example, if the domain is set to append_domain: example.com and the username is Example.User, the SPS plugin will look for the user Example.User@example.com on the Okta server.
If you configure both the append_domain parameter in the [username_transform] section and the [usermapping source=ldap_server] section of the SPS Okta plugin, SPS appends the @ character and the value of the append_domain parameter to the value retrieved from the LDAP database.
The Explicit method has priority over the LDAP server method.
If you have configured neither the append_domain parameter nor any of the [USERMAPPING] sections, SPS assumes that the external Okta identity of the user is the same as the gateway username.
