SAML Single Sign On (SSO) Into Confluence Using Shibboleth3

Confluence SAML app gives the ability to enable SAML Single Sign On for Confluence Software. Confluence Software is compatible with all SAML Identity Providers. Here we will go through a guide to configure SSO between Confluence and your Identity Provider. By the end of this guide, users from your Identity Provider should be able to login and register to Confluence Software.

Pre-requisites

To integrate your Identity Provider(IDP) with Confluence, you need the following items:

Confluence should be installed and configured.
Admin credentials are set up in Confluence.
Confluence server is https enabled (optional).
Valid Confluence Server and Data center Licence.

Download And Installation

Log into your Confluence instance as an admin.
Navigate to the settings menu and Click Manage Apps.
Click Find new apps or Find new add-ons from the left-hand side of the page.
Locate Confluence SSO/ Single Sign On, SAML SSO via search.
Click Try free to begin a new trial or Buy now to purchase a license for Confluence SSO/ Single Sign On, SAML SSO.
Enter your information and click Generate license when redirected to MyAtlassian.
Click Apply license.

Step 1: Setup Shibboleth3 as Identity Provider

In conf/idp.properties, uncomment and set 'idp.encryption.optional' to true.
eg. idp.encryption.optional = true
In conf/metadata-providers.xml, configure Service Provider like below.


<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.


<!-- Note: 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 miniOrange SAML plugin.

IDP Entity ID	https://<your_domain>/idp/shibboleth
Single Login URL	https://<your_domain>/idp/profile/SAML2/Redirect/SSO
Single Logout URL	https://<your_domain>/idp/shibboleth
X.509 Certificate	The public key certificate of your Shibboleth server

Step 2: Setup Confluence as Service Provider

Now we will go through the steps to setup Confluence as a Service Provider using miniOrange add-on:

Configure Single Identity Provider (IdPs)
Configure Multiple Identity Providers (IdPs)

Configure Single Identity Provider (IdPs)

Configure Identity Provider

Step 1. Adding IDP settings in add-on

With the information you have been given by your IDP, you can configure IdP settings in 3 ways.

By Metadata URL
By uploading Metadata XML file
Manual Configuration

miniorange img By Metadata URL:

Click on Import from Metadata in Configure IDP tab.
Select IDP: Import From Metadata URL.
Enter your metadata URL.
If your IDP changes certificates at intervals(Eg. Azure AD), you can select Refresh metadata periodically. Select 5 minutes for the best results.
Click Import.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Configure IDP using Metadata URL

miniorange img By uploading Metadata XML file:

Click on Import from Metadata in Configure IDP tab.
Select IDP: Import from Metadata File.
Upload metadata file.
Click Import.

SAML Single Sign ON (SSO) into Confluence, Configure IDP through uploading metadata IDP

miniorange img Manual Configuration:

Go to Configure IDP tab and enter the following details.

IDP Name

IDP Entity ID

Single Sign On URL

Single Logout URL

X.509 Certificate

SAML Single Sign ON (SSO) into Confluence, Manual IDP Configuration

Configure Multiple Identity Providers (IdPs)

Configure Multiple Identity Providers

Step 1: Add New IdP

Click on Add New IdP button given in the right topmost corner. You can configure IdP using one of these 3 methods.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Add new IDP

Step 2: List of IdPs

Once the IdP endpoints are configured successfully, you will get to see list of all the IdPs.
You can edit Metadata endpoints using Edit option.
Click on Test to check your IdP response. It shows Test successful with set of attributes you configured in your IdP. You can perform Single Sign-On once the test is successful.
You can remove IdP from the list using Delete option.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Multiple IDP List

Step 3: Single Sign On

Select your IdP from the list. It will redirect you to selected IdP login page.

SAML Single Sign ON (SSO) into Confluence, Login form with multiple IDP configured

Step 4 : Domain Mapping

Enable Domain mapping using Use Domain Mapping option.
Enter IdP domain name.

Note: For this feature you have to configure domain name for each and every IDP from the list.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Domain Mapping

Step 5: Single Sign On using Domain mapping

Enter user email address. It will check your domain name with the configured domain if it match then it will redirect you to the respective Identity Provider Login page.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Login form while domain mapping is on

Step 3: Setting up Confluence user profile attributes

Disable User Profile Mapping

a. Finding correct attributes

Go to Configure IDP tab. Scroll down and click on Test Configuration.
You will see all the values returned by your IDP to Confluence in a table. If you don’t see value for First Name, Last Name, Email or Username, make the required settings in your IDP to return this information.
Once you see all the values in Test Configuration, keep the window open and go to User Profile tab.

b. Setting profile attributes

In this tab, fill the values by matching the name of the attribute. For instance, if the Attribute Name in the Test Configuration window is NameID, enter NameID against Username
Setting up both Username and Email is required if you want to let users register. If you want existing users to only login, configure the attribute using which you will match user in Confluence.

c. Matching a User

When user logs into Confluence, one of the user’s data/attribute coming in from the IDP is used to search the user in Confluence. This is used to detect the user in Confluence and login the user to the same account.

Go to User Profile tab
Select Username or Email for Login/Search Confluence user account by
Enter the attribute name from IDP which corresponds to Username or Email using Finding Correct Attributes

Step 4: Assigning groups to users

Read Only

Disable Group Mapping

a. Setting default group

Select the users' Default Group in the tab User Groups. If no group is mapped, users are added by default to this group.
You can enable default groups for All Users or New Users using the option.Select None if you don't want to assign any default group to SSO users. Using the option Enable Default Groups for.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Default groups configuration

b. Finding Group Attribute

Just like we found Attribute Name for User Profile attributes, we find group attribute.
Go to Configure IDP tab. Scroll down and click on Test Configuration.
You will see all the values returned by your IDP to Confluence in a table. If you don't see value with groups, make the required settings in your IDP to return group names.
Once you see all the values in Test Configuration, keep the window open and go to User Groups tab.
Enter the Attribute Name of group against Group Attribute.
Check Disable Group Mapping option if you don't want to update groups of existing users.

c. Group Mapping

Manual group mapping: If the names of groups in Confluence are different than the corresponding groups in IDP, then you should use Manual group mapping.
On-The-Fly group mapping: If the names of groups in Confluence and IDP are same, you should use On-The-Fly group mapping.

I. Manual Group Mapping
- Check Restrict User Creation Based on Group Mapping option if you want new users to be created only if at least one of the user's IDP groups is mapped to a group in the application.
- For mapping, first select a Confluence group from the dropdown which lists all groups present in Confluence and then enter the name of the IDP group to be mapped in the textbox beside
- For example, if you want all users in 'dev' group in IDP to be added to confluence-users, you will need to select confluence-users from the dropdown and enter 'dev' against confluence-users.
- Use '+1' and '+10' buttons to add extra mapping fields.
- Use '-' button next to each mapping to delete that mapping.
II. On-The Fly Group Mapping
- Check Create New Groups option if you want new groups from IDP to be created if not found in Confluence.
- If the user is part of some group in Confluence and that group is not present in the SAML response returned by IDP, then the user will be removed from that group in Confluence.
- If you don't want On-The-Fly group mapping to affect Confluence groups which are managed locally then add those groups in Exclude Groups field.

Step 5: SSO Settings

Sign In Settings

a. Sign In Settings

Set button text for button on login page using Login Button Text
Set redirect URL after login using Relay State. Keep this empty for coming back to the same page user started from
Enable Auto-redirect to IDP if you want to allow users to login only using IDP. Enable backdoor for emergency

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Auto redirect to IDP

b. Custom Login Template

Set custom login template to redirect users to a custom login page instead of Confluence default login page. This won't work if you have Auto-redirect to IDP enabled.
Don't forget to copy default login page URL in case of emergency.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Custom Login template settings

c. Sign Out Settings

Enter a custom logout URL to redirect your users to a pre-defined logout page
Set a custom logout template to show custom logout page to users on logout

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Sign Out settings

d. SSO Error Settings

Set error template to redirect users to a custom error page instead of login page. Use this if you have Auto-redirect to IDP enabled.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Custom Error Template Settings

e. Advanced Settings

Remember Me: If enabled, user stays logged in until user explicitly logs out.
You can extend Confluence default session timeout using these steps. By default it is set to 60 minutes.
Validate IDP's SAML Response: Configure time difference(in minute) here In case Confluence server time is not in sync with your IDP's time.

SAML Single Sign On (SSO) into Confluence, Advanced SSO Settings

If you are looking for anything which you cannot find, please drop us an email on info@xecurify.com