Guide for Shibboleth2 as IdP with Joomla

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Shibboleth2 Single Sign On (SSO) for Joomla miniOrange provides a ready to use solution for Joomla. This solution ensures that you are ready to roll out secure access to your Joomla site using Shibboleth2 within minutes.

Step 1: Setup Shibboleth2 as Identity Provider

  • In conf/relying-party.xml, configure Service Provider like this
    • <MetadataProviderxsi:type="InlineMetadataProvider" xmlns="urn:mace:shibboleth:2.0:metadata" id="MyInlineMetadata">
      <EntitiesDescriptorxmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata">
        <md:EntityDescriptorxmlns:md="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata" entityID="<ENTITY_ID_FROM_PLUGIN>">
          <md:SPSSODescriptorAuthnRequestsSigned="false" WantAssertionsSigned="true" protocolSupportEnumeration=
              "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:protocol">
            <urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameidformat:emailAddress</md:NameIDFormat>
            <md:AssertionConsumerService Binding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:https-POST"
              Location="<ACS_URL_FROM_PLUGIN>" index="1"/>
          </md:SPSSODescriptor>
        </md:EntityDescriptor>
      </EntitiesDescriptor>
    </MetadataProvider>
  • Make sure your Shibboleth server is sending Email Address of the user in Name ID. In attribute-resolver.xml, get the email attribute as Name ID:
    • <resolver:AttributeDefinitionxsi:type="ad:Simple" id="email" sourceAttributeID="mail">
       <resolver:Dependency ref="ldapConnector" />
       <resolver:AttributeEncoderxsi:type="enc:SAML2StringNameID" nameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:
        nameid-format:emailAddress"/>
    </resolver:AttributeDefinition>
  • In attribute-filter.xml, release the email attribute:
    • <afp:AttributeFilterPolicy id="releaseTransientIdToAnyone">
    <afp:PolicyRequirementRulexsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
      <afp:AttributeRuleattributeID="email">
        <afp:PermitValueRulexsi:type="basic:ANY"/>
      </afp:AttributeRule>
    </afp:AttributeFilterPolicy>
  • Restart the Shibboleth Server.
  • You need to configure these endpoints in the Service Provider.
    • IDP Entity ID https://<your_domain>/idp/shibboleth
    Single Login URL https://<your_domain>/idp/profile/SAML2/Redirect/SSO
    X.509 Certificate The public key certificate of your Shibboleth server

Step 2: Configuring Joomla as Service Provider (SP)

  • In miniOrange SAML plugin, go to Service Provider Setup Tab. There are two ways to configure the plugin with your IDP(Shibboleth2-idp):

    • I. By Uploading Shibboleth2 Metadata.xml file(Recommended):

      1. Click on Upload IDP Metadata to upload your IDP(Shibboleth2-idp) metadata.

      Joomla shibboleth sso metadata 2. Choose metadata file and click on Upload.

      Joomla shibboleth sso metadata url

    II. Manual Configuration :

    • In miniOrange SAML plugin, go to Service Provider Setup Tab. Enter the following values:
      IDP Entity ID Identity Provider Issuer from Shibboleth2 Setup Instructions
      Single Sign-On Service URL Identity Provider Single Sign-On URL from Shibboleth2-idp Setup Instructions
      X.509 Certificate X.509 Certifiacate from Shibboleth2 Setup Instructions

    III. Add a button on your site login page with the following URL:


      Joomla shibboleth sso

Step 3: Attribute Mapping (It is Optional to fill this). This is Premium feature.

  • Attributes are user details that are stored in your Identity Provider.
  • Attribute Mapping helps you to get user attributes from your Identity Provider (Shibboleth2-idp) and map them to Joomla user attributes like firstname, lastname etc.
  • While auto registering the users in your Joomla site these attributes will automatically get mapped to your Joomla user details.
  • In miniOrange SAML plugin, go to Attribute Mapping tab and fill in all the fields.
    Username: Name of the username attribute from IdP (Keep NameID by default)
    Email: Name of the email attribute from IdP (Keep NameID by default)
    Group/Role: Name of the Role attribute from your Identity Provider (Shibboleth2-idp)
    • Joomla shibboleth sso mapping
  • You can check the Test Configuration Results under Service Provider Setup tab to get a better idea of which values to map here.

Step 4: Group Mapping (It is Optional to fill this). This is Premium feature.

  • Joomla uses a concept of Roles, designed to give the site owner the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the site.
  • Role mapping helps you to assign specific roles to users of a certain group in your Identity Provider (Shibboleth2-idp).
  • While auto registering, the users are assigned roles based on the group they are mapped to.
    • Joomla shibboleth sso role mapping

Step 5: Redirection & SSO Links.

  • Go to Redirection & SSO Links tab. There are multiple features availabe in this tab like Auto redirect the user to Identity Provider and Enable Backed Login for Super Users.To use these features, click on the respective checkboxes.
    • Joomla shibboleth sso signin

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