SAML Single Sign-On into Joomla using Shibboleth3

Overview

miniOrange Joomla SAML SP SSO plugin helps you to integrate your Joomla site to Shibboleth3 using SAML 2.0 protocol. Our user-friendly plugin simplifies the process of setting up Single Sign-on (SSO) with Shibboleth3 in Joomla, ensuring a secure login experience. This enables users to access various Joomla sites effortlessly using their Shibboleth3 IDP credentials.

Our plugin is designed to be compatible with Joomla 3, 4 as well as 5 and works seamlessly with all SAML 2.0 compliant Identity Providers. For a detailed overview of the comprehensive features offered by the Joomla SAML SP plugin, please visit our page here. Below, we provide a step-by-step guide on configuring SAML SSO login between your Joomla site and Shibboleth3, with Shibboleth3 serving as the Identity Provider (IDP) and Joomla as the Service Provider (SP).

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Configuration Steps

In this setup, Shibboleth3 serves as the repository for storing users i.e. it will act as the IDP while Joomla is where users will log in using their credentials from Shibboleth3 where Joomla SAML SP SSO Plugin will be installed.

Step 1: Install Joomla SAML SP Plugin

Login into your Joomla site’s Administrator console.
From left toggle menu, click on System, then under Install section click on Extensions.
Now click on Or Browse for file button to locate and install the plugin file downloaded earlier.

Installation of plugin is successful. Now click on Get Started!

Go to the Service Provider Metadata tab and scroll down to copy the SP-EntityID and the ACS URL.

Step 2: Configure Shibboleth3 as IDP (Identity Provider)

In conf/idp.properties, uncomment and set 'idp.encryption.optional' to true. For, example: idp.encryption.optional = true.
In conf/metadata-providers.xml, follow the code below to set up a Service Provide:

  <MetadataProvider xmlns:samlmd="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata"id="miniOrangeInLineEntity" xsi:type="InlineMetadataProvider" sortKey="1">
        <samlmd:EntityDescriptor ID="entity" entityID="<SP-EntityID / Issuer from Service Provider Info tab in plugin.>"validUntil="2020-09-06T04:13:32Z">
        <samlmd:SPSSODescriptor AuthnRequestsSigned="false" WantAssertionsSigned="true"protocolSupportEnumeration="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:protocol">
        <samlmd:NameIDFormat>
        urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress
        </samlmd:NameIDFormat>
        <samlmd:AssertionConsumerService Binding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST"Location="<ACS (AssertionConsumerService) URL from Step1 of the plugin under Identity Provider Tab.>"index="1" />
        </samlmd:SPSSODescriptor>
        </samlmd:EntityDescriptor>
    </MetadataProvider>

In conf/saml-nameid.properties, uncomment and set default NameID as Email Address like this:

        idp.nameid.saml2.default=urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress

In conf/saml-nameid-xml, search for shibboleth.SAML2NameIDGenerators. Uncomment the shibboleth.SAML2AttributeSourcedGenerator bean and comment all other ref beans.

        <!-- SAML 2 NameID Generation -->
            <util:list id="shibboleth.SAML2NameIDGenerators">
                <!--<ref bean="shibboleth.SAML2TransientGenerator" /> -->
                <!--><ref bean="shibboleth.SAML2PersistentGenerator" /> -->
                <bean parent="shibboleth.SAML2AttributeSourcedGenerator"p:format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress"p:attributeSourceIds="#{ {'email'} }" />
        </util:list>

Make sure you have defined AttributeDefinition in conf/attribute-resolver.xml.

        AttributeDefinitionid must be same as what you provided in attributeSourceIds in conf/saml-nameid.xml

  <resolver:AttributeDefinitionxsi:type="ad:Simple" id="email" sourceAttributeID="mail">
        <resolver:Dependency ref="ldapConnector" />
        <resolver:AttributeEncoderxsi:type="enc:SAML2String" name="email" friendlyName="email" />
        </resolver:AttributeDefinition >
        <resolver:DataConnector id="ldapConnector" xsi:type="dc:LDAPDirectory" ldapURL="%{idp.authn.LDAP.ldapURL}"baseDN="%{idp.authn.LDAP.baseDN}" principal="%{idp.authn.LDAP.bindDN}"principalCredential="%{idp.authn.LDAP.bindDNCredential}">
        <dc:FilterTemplate>
        <!-- Define you User Search Filter here -->
        <![CDATA[ (&(objectclass=*)(cn=$requestContext.principalName)) ]]>
        </dc:FilterTemplate>
        <dc:ReturnAttributes>*</dc:ReturnAttributes>
    </resolver:DataConnector>

Make sure you have AttributeFilterPolicy defined in conf/attribute-filter.xml.

  <afp:AttributeFilterPolicy id="ldapAttributes"> 
        <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
Single Login URL	https://<your_domain>/idp/shibboleth
X.509 Certificate	The public key certificate of your Shibboleth server

Step 3: Configure Joomla as SP (Service Provider)

In Joomla SAML plugin, go to Service Provider Setup tab. There are three ways to configure the plugin:

A. By uploading IDP metadata:

In Joomla SAML plugin, go to Service Provider Setup tab, then click on Upload IdP Metadata.

B. By Metadata URL:

Enter Metadata URL (Copy from IDP app) and click on Fetch button.

C. Manual Configuration:

Copy SAML Entity ID, SAML Single-Sign-On Endpoint URL and X.509 certificate from Federation Metadata document and paste it in Idp Entity ID or Issuer, Single Sign-on URL, X.509 Certificate fields respectively in the plugin.

IdP Entity ID or Issuer	SAML Entity ID in the Federation Metadata document
Single Sign-On URL	SAML Single-Sign-On Endpoint URL in the Federation Metadata document
X.509 Certificate Value	X.509 Certificate in the Federation Metadata document

Step 4: Attribute Mapping - 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 (IDP) and map them to Joomla user attributes like firstname, lastname, address, phone etc.
While auto registering the users in your Joomla site these attributes will automatically get mapped to your Joomla user details.
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)
Name:	Name of the name attribute from IdP

You can check the Test Configuration Results under Service Provider Setup tab to get a better idea of which values to map here.

Note: You can see how Attribute Mapping works here.

Step 5: Group Mapping - Premium Feature

Group/Role mapping helps you to assign specific roles to users of a certain group in your Identity Provider (IdP).
While auto registering, the users are assigned roles based on the group they are mapped to.

Group/Role mapping helps you to assign specific roles to users of a certain group in your Identity Provider (IdP).
While auto registering, the users are assigned roles based on the group they are mapped to.

Note: You can see how Group/Role Mapping works here.

Step 6: Redirection & SSO Links

Go to Login Settings tab. You can add login Url to Perform SAML SSO in your Joomla site by following the steps below.
There are multiple features available in this tab like Auto redirect the user to Identity Provider and Enable Backend Login for Super Users. To use these features, click on the respective checkboxes.

Click on the Upgrade tab to check out our complete list of features and various licensing plans. OR you can click here to check features and licensing plans.
In case, you are facing some issue or have any question in mind, you can reach out to us by sending us your query through the Support button in the plugin or by sending us a mail at joomlasupport@xecurify.com.

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