SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) for WordPress using Custom Identity Provider (IDP)

Overview

Custom Identity Provider Single Sign-On (SSO) login for WordPress can be achieved by using our SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) plugin for WordPress. Our plugin is compatible with all the SAML compliant Identity Providers. Here we will go through a step-by-step guide to configure SSO login between WordPress site and Custom Identity Provider by considering Custom Identity Provider as IDP(Identity Provider) and WordPress as SP (Service Provider).

You can visit our SSO for WordPress plugin to know more about the other features we provide.

Pre-requisites : Download And Installation

To configure Custom Identity Provider as SAML IDP with WordPress, you will need to install the miniOrange WP SAML SP SSO plugin.

Configuration Steps

Step 1: Configure Custom Identity Provider as IDP

Using Metadata URL

Copy the metadata URL from the plugin and provide it to the IDP.

MO-SAML-Settings-Configure-SAML-Identity-Provider-for-SSO

Using Metadata XML file

Download the metadata XML file from the plugin under Service Provider Metadata tab and upload it to the IDP.

Using Manual configuration

You can also enter the information manually into your IDP as provided under the Service Provider Metadata tab.

You have successfully configured Custom Identity Provider as SAML IdP (Identity Provider) for achieving Custom Identity Provider SSO login into your WordPress (WP) Site.

Step 2: Configure WordPress as SP (Service Provider)

Free
Standard
Premium

In the miniOrange SAML SSO plugin for WordPress, go to the IDP Configuration tab. There are two ways to configure the SSO Plugin for WordPress:

A. By uploading IDP metadata:

Click on the Upload IDP Metadata tab.
Enter the Identity Provider Name.
Choose one of the following options:
- Upload Metadata file then click the Upload button.
- Enter metadata URL then click the Fetch Metadata button.

SAML SSO for WordPress | Login-upload metadata

B. Manual Configuration:

Enter the required Identity Provider details, including Identity Provider Name, IDP Entity ID or Issuer, SAML Login URL, and X.509 Certificate, as provided by your Identity Provider.
Click Save to save the configuration.
Click the Test Configuration button to verify the configuration and check the attributes and values received from the Identity Provider.

SAML SSO for WordPress | Test configuration

Step 3: Attribute Mapping

Note: To configure attribute mapping for multiple Identity Providers, follow the Attribute Mapping with Multiple IdPs guide. This feature is available in the Enterprise plan and above.

In the free plugin, NameID is used for the Username and Email attributes of the WordPress user.
When a user performs SSO, the NameID value sent by the Identity Provider is mapped to the Username and Email fields of the WordPress user.

SAML SSO for WordPress | Login-attribute mapping

In the SAML SSO plugin for WordPress, go to the Service Provider Setup tab of the plugin. There are two ways to configure the SSO Plugin for WordPress:

A. By uploading IDP metadata:

Click on Upload IDP metadata button.
Enter the Identity Provider Name
You can either upload a metadata file and click on Upload button or use a metadata URL and click on Fetch Metadata.

B.Manual Configuration:

Provide the required settings (i.e. Identity Provider Name, IDP Entity ID or Issuer, SAML Login URL, X.509 Certificate) as provided by your Identity Provider and click on the Save button.
Click on Test configuration to check the attributes and values sent by IDP.

Step 3: Attribute Mapping

Note: To configure attribute mapping for multiple identity providers, follow the setup guide here. This feature is available in the Enterprise plan.

Attribute Mapping feature allows you to map the user attributes sent by the IDP during SSO to the user attributes at WordPress.
In SAML Plugin for WordPress, go to Attribute/Role Mapping tab and fill up the following fields in Attribute Mapping section.

NOTE: If you click on Test Configuration button in Service Provider Setup tab and authenticate with your IDP, you can see a list of attributes sent by the IDP in the Attribute/Role mapping tab. This information can be used to provide the above mapping.

In the SAML SSO plugin for WordPress, go to the Service Provider Setup tab of the plugin. There are two ways to configure the SSO Plugin for WordPress:

A. By uploading IDP metadata:

Click on Upload IDP metadata button.
Enter the Identity Provider Name
You can either upload a metadata file and click on Upload button or use a metadata URL and click on Fetch Metadata.
In the Premium plugin, you can enable auto-sync for the metadata URL which will auto-update the plugin configuration as per the IDP metadata after a set interval of time

SAML SSO for WordPress | Login-enableauto scan

B.Manual Configuration:

Provide the required settings (i.e. Identity Provider Name, IDP Entity ID or Issuer, SAML Login URL, X.509 Certificate) as provided by your Identity Provider and click on the Save button.
Click on Test configuration to check the attributes and values sent by IDP.

Test configuration - SAML SSO for WordPress

In the Premium Plugin, you can provide the SAML Logout URL to achieve Single Logout on your WordPress site.

Step 3: Attribute Mapping

Note: To configure attribute mapping for multiple identity providers, follow the setup guide here. This feature is available in the Enterprise plan.

Attribute Mapping feature allows you to map the user attributes sent by the IDP during SSO to the user attributes at WordPress.
In SAML Plugin for WordPress, go to Attribute/Role Mapping tab and fill up the following fields in Attribute Mapping section.

Login-attribute mapping - SAML SSO for WordPress

Custom Attribute Mapping: This feature allows you to map any attribute sent by the IDP to the usermeta table of WordPress.

Step 4: Role Mapping

Note: To configure role mapping for multiple Identity Providers, follow the Role Mapping with Multiple IdPs guide. This feature is available in the Enterprise plan and above.

Navigate to the Attribute/Role Mapping tab and locate the Role Mapping section.
Select the required role from the Default Role dropdown and click Update to save your changes.

Note: The selected Default Role applies only to new users when they perform SSO. Existing WordPress users retain their current roles.

SAML SSO for WordPress | Login-role mapping

Step 4: Role Mapping

Note: To configure role mapping for multiple identity providers, follow the setup guide here. This feature is available in the Enterprise plan.

In the standard plugin, you can choose a default role which will be assigned to all the non-admin users when they perform SSO.

Go to Attribute/Role mapping tab and navigate to Role Mapping section.
Select the Default Role and click on the Save button.

Step 4: Role Mapping

This feature allows you to assign and manage roles of the users when they perform SSO. Along with the default WordPress roles, this is compatible with any custom roles as well.

Note: To configure role mapping for multiple identity providers, follow the setup guide here. This feature is available in the Enterprise plan.

From the Attribute Mapping section of the plugin, provide a mapping for the field named Group/Role. This attribute will contain the role related information sent by the IDP and will be used for Role Mapping.
Navigate to role mapping section and provide the mappings for the highlighted roles.

Login-role mapping - SAML SSO for WordPress

For example, If you want a user whose Group/Role attribute value is wp-editor to be assigned as an Editor in WordPress, just provide the mapping as wp-editor in the Editor field of Role Mapping section.

Step 5: SSO Settings

Navigate to the Redirection & SSO Links tab of the plugin to configure the SSO Settings.

1. Use a Single Sign-On Button

Enable the Add a Single Sign-On button on the WordPress Login Page toggle from the Option 1: Use a Single Sign-On button section to add a Single Sign-On button onto the WordPress login page.

SAML SSO for WordPress | Login-SSO button

2. SSO Links

In the free plugin, you can enable SP-initiated SSO by adding an SSO link to a button or hyperlink on your WordPress site.
Scroll down to the Option 2: SSO Links section.
Initiate SSO with the default redirect behavior: Copy the first SSO link provided in the plugin and add it to a button or hyperlink on your website. When users click the link, they are redirected to the Identity Provider (IdP) for authentication and then returned to your WordPress site.
https://your-wordpress-site.com/?option=saml_user_login
Redirect users to a specific page after authentication: Copy the second SSO link provided in the plugin and add it to a button or hyperlink. This link includes the redirect_to parameter, which allows you to specify the page users should visit after successful authentication.
https://your-wordpress-site.com/?option=saml_user_login&redirect_to=page_url

SAML SSO for WordPress | Login-SSO links

Note: Replace your-wordpress-site.com with your WordPress site URL and page_url with the URL of the page where users should be redirected after successful authentication.

Step 5: SSO settings

In the Standard plugin you can enable SP-initiated SSO using the following options.

Auto-Redirection from site: If this option is enabled, any unauthenticated user trying to access your site will get redirected to the IDP login page and after successful authentication, they will be redirected back to the same page on your site which they were trying to access.

Steps:

Go to Redirection and SSO Links tab of the plugin and navigate to Option 1: Auto - Redirection from site.
Enable Redirect to IDP if user not logged in [PROTECT COMPLETE SITE]option.

Auto-Redirection from WordPress Login: If this option is enabled, any unauthenticated user trying to access the default WordPress login page will get redirected to the IDP login page for authentication. After successful authentication, they will be redirected back to the WordPress site.

Steps:

Go to Redirection and SSO Links tab of the plugin and navigate to Option 2: Auto- Redirection from WordPress Login.
Enable Redirect to IDP from WordPress Login Page option.

NOTE: Please enable the Backdoor login and note down the backdoor URL. This will allow you to access the WordPress login page in case you get locked out of the IDP.

SSO Links: You can add SSO links anywhere on your site using the Shortcode and Widget provided in Redirection and SSO Links tab > Option 3: SSO Links section of the plugin

Step 5: SSO Settings

In the Premium plugin you can enable SP-initiated SSO using the following options.

Auto-Redirection from site: If this option is enabled, any unauthenticated user trying to access your site will get redirected to the IDP login page and after successful authentication they will be redirected back to the same page on your site which they were trying to access.

Steps:

Go to Redirection and SSO Links tab of the plugin and navigate to Option 1 : Auto-Redirection from site.
Enable Redirect to IDP if user not logged in [PROTECT COMPLETE SITE] option.

Auto-Redirection from WordPress Login: If this option is enabled, any unauthenticated user trying to access the default WordPress login page will get redirected to the IDP login page for authentication. After successful authentication, they will be redirected back to the WordPress site.

Steps:

Go to Redirection and SSO Links tab of the plugin and navigate to Option 2: Auto-Redirection from WordPress Login.
Enable Redirect to IDP from WordPress Login Page option.

NOTE: Please enable the Backdoor login and note down the backdoor URL. This will allow you to access the WordPress login page in case you get locked out of the IDP login.

Login Button: You can add a customized login button anywhere on your site or WordPress login page by navigating to Option 3: Login Button section of Redirection and SSO Links tab.

SSO Links: You can add SSO links anywhere on your site using the Shortcode and Widget provided in Option 4: SSO Links section of Redirection and SSO Links tab.

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Contents

SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) for WordPress using Custom Identity Provider (IDP)

Overview