PhixFlow Help

Configure SAML Integration

Owned by Adam Campbell
Last updated: Mar 05, 2020 by Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)
7 min read

This page is for PhixFlow administrators who need to integrate PhixFlow authentication with a SAML system. 

For related information, see the PhixFlow User Administration topic. This page describes how to integrate PhixFlow with SAML. 


Overview

To configure user access to PhixFlow, configure PhixFlow's own authentication and authorisation system. This includes user accounts, user groups, roles and privileges; see Managing the User List. 

Users who belong to the Administrators user group can create, delete or update another users' account, user group and privileges.

Optionally, you can also integrate PhixFlow with your existing authentication system using:

  • Active Directory
  • SAML. 

In this case, you must create PhixFlow user accounts that have the same usernames that are present in your existing system.

You can also use your existing system to manage the user authorisation to the items and data in PhixFlow. In PhixFlow you must add the users to user groups. You can then map the PhixFlow user groups to Active Directory Groups; see Configure Active Directory Integration.

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is a standard for providing secure single-sign on for users. On Microsoft Windows Servers, the single sign-on identity for users are provided by the Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) component. 

On Windows Server systems that are running ADFS, you can configure PhixFlow to be a SAML Service Provider. This involves mapping PhixFlow user groups to the Active Directory groups. When a user attempts to log into PhixFlow, they are redirected to the authentication page of your system's identity provider, where they enter their username and password. If they are successfully authenticated they will then be redirected to PhixFlow and logged in.


Sections on this page


Configure phixflow-login.xml

Configuration details for SAML are configured in the file phixflow-login.xml, under [tomcat root]/webapps/phixflow/WEB-INF/classes. When you first install PhixFlow, you probably created a copy of this file by simply copying the example file phixflow-login.xml.example (see Install the PhixFlow Webapp).

Configure the authentication manager

Add the SAML authentication provider (which is already defined) to the authenticationProvider.

Find this section of the file:

	<security:authentication-manager alias="authenticationManager">
		<!-- test authentication provider, leave commented out -->
		<!-- <security:authentication-provider ref="testAuthProvider" /> -->

		<!-- local authentication provider - provide access for CenterView database users. Don't change it -->
		<security:authentication-provider ref="localAuthProvider" />

		<!-- Add an Active Directory Authentication Provider below this line; uncomment if using active directory integration -->
		<!-- <security:authentication-provider ref="exampleActiveDirectoryAuthProvider" /> -->

		<!-- Add SAML Authentication Provider; uncomment if using saml / single sign-on -->
		<!-- <security:authentication-provider ref="samlAuthProvider"/> -->
	</security:authentication-manager>

... and edit it to look like this (omitting comments):

	<security:authentication-manager alias="authenticationManager">
		<security:authentication-provider ref="localAuthProvider" />
		<security:authentication-provider ref="samlAuthProvider" />
	</security:authentication-manager>

We recommend that you do not remove the localAuthProvider, and that you retain a local administrator user so that you can still login in the event of a problem with the SAML integration.

Set up User Accounts

For the users in your SAML authentication system, create PhixFlow user accounts; see User.

Configure Login Forms

Login forms define the login options (local, single sign-on, active directory) to be presented on the login screen when a user opens the PhixFlow URL. This mechanism allows you to define a default form tailored to regular users and one or more forms for advanced users.

See Configure Login Forms for how to configure and use login forms.

Enable SAML beans

These 2 blocks serve to disable the bulk of the file for the normal case where SAML is not required.

Find these lines and remove them or comment them out:

	<!-- comment out to enable saml / single sign-on -->
	<beans profile="saml">

E.g.

	<!-- comment out to enable saml / single sign-on -->
	<!--
	<beans profile="saml">
	-->

Find these lines, near the end of the file, and remove them or comment them out:

	<!-- comment out to enable saml -->
	</beans>

E.g.

	<!-- comment out to enable saml -->
	<!--
	</beans>
	-->

Configure the keyManager

The SAML integration requires one or more public/private keys. These are stored in a Java keystore file, and the information needed to access that file is configured in the keyManager.

Instructions for creating a keystore can be found here: Configure Tomcat For HTTPS.

Below is an example of a keystore:

	<!-- The KeyStore stores encryption keys -->
	<bean id="keyManager" class="org.springframework.security.saml.key.JKSKeyManager">
		<!-- the keystore file -->
		<constructor-arg value="file:/opt/tomcat/secure/keystore.jks" />
		<!-- password protecting the keystore -->
		<constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="keyStorePassword" />
		<constructor-arg>
			<map>
				<!-- key alias and key-specific password; add one entry for each key in the keystore -->
				<entry key="keyAlias" value="keyPassword" />
			</map>
		</constructor-arg>
		<!-- default key alias -->
		<constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="defaultKeyAlias" />
	</bean>

For the most basic configuration just replace the "file:/.../keystore.jks" with your keystore, "KeyStorePassword" with your keystore password and "keyPassword" with your key password.

For security reasons, access to phixflow-login.xml and to keystore.jks should be restricted so that they are read-only to the tomcat user / account and not readable by regular users.

Configure the Context Provider

The context provider communicates the external view of the PhixFlow server to other parts of the configuration.

If the server does not run behind a reverse proxy, you can skip the rest of this section.

If the server runs behind a reverse proxy, a different context provider must be configured to reflect the public view of the service.

Find this section:

	<!-- Context Provider -->

	<!-- context provider when behind reverse proxy -->
	<!-- see https://docs.spring.io/autorepo/docs/spring-security-saml/1.0.x/reference/html/configuration-advanced.html -->
	<!--  
	<bean id="contextProvider" class="org.springframework.security.saml.context.SAMLContextProviderLB">
		<property name="scheme" value="https"/>
		<property name="serverName" value="www.myserver.com"/>
		<property name="serverPort" value="443"/>
		<property name="includeServerPortInRequestURL" value="false"/>
		<property name="contextPath" value="/spring-security-saml2-sample"/>
	</bean>
	-->

	<!-- context provider when not behind reverse proxy -->
	<bean id="contextProvider" class="org.springframework.security.saml.context.SAMLContextProviderImpl" />

Edit this by deleting the original contextProvider, uncommenting the reverse proxy version, and changing the serverName, serverPort and contextPath to match the public view.

It should look something like this (comments omitted):

	<bean id="contextProvider" class="org.springframework.security.saml.context.SAMLContextProviderLB">
		<property name="scheme" value="https"/>
		<property name="serverName" value="myserver.com"/>
		<property name="serverPort" value="443"/>
		<property name="includeServerPortInRequestURL" value="false"/>
		<property name="contextPath" value="/phixflow"/>
	</bean>

Configure the Metadata Generator

The core of the interaction between a SAML identity provider (e.g. Active Directory Federation Services) and a SAML Service Provider (e.g. PhixFlow) relies on the exchange of metadata. Each party generates metadata which describes how to connect to it, and that metadata must be installed into the other party before any connection can be made.

The metadata generator generates the PhixFlow server's metadata based on configuration parameters and data available when a user tries to connect to it.

Find the metadata generator section:

	<!-- filter that generates metadata based on configured properties -->
	<bean id="metadataGeneratorFilter" class="org.springframework.security.saml.metadata.MetadataGeneratorFilter">
		<constructor-arg>
			<bean class="org.springframework.security.saml.metadata.MetadataGenerator"> 
				<property name="entityId" value="urn:test:phixflow:phixflow" />
				<property name="entityBaseURL" value="https://myhostname:myport/phixflow" />
				<property name="extendedMetadata">
					<bean class="org.springframework.security.saml.metadata.ExtendedMetadata">
						<property name="idpDiscoveryEnabled" value="false" />
					</bean>
				</property>
			</bean>
		</constructor-arg> 
	</bean>

Then

  • change the entityId value to something that globally identifies the PhixFlow instance
  • change the entityBaseURL value to the URL normally used to start PhixFlow. If PhixFlow is running behind a reverse proxy, this should be the public URL, not the internal URL which only the proxy sees.

Configure the Identity-Provider Metadata Provider

The identity provider metadata provider defines how we have installed the identity-provider's metadata and how we should handle it e.g. we can control whether to enable or disable additional security checks.

First, install the identity provider's metadata file in a convenient folder. In the example, we assume that it will be in the metadata directory, which is along side the phixflow-login.xml file, but you can also use a file: reference (see below) to place the metadata in an unrelated directory.

Find this section of the file:

	<!-- file-base identity-provider (idp) metadata provider - this defines the metadata for a single identity provider -->
	<bean id="idpFileMetadataProvider" class="org.springframework.security.saml.metadata.ExtendedMetadataDelegate">
		<constructor-arg>
				<bean class="org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.FilesystemMetadataProvider">
					<constructor-arg>
						<value type="java.io.File">classpath:metadata/idp-metadata.xml</value>
					</constructor-arg>
					<property name="parserPool" ref="parserPool" />
				</bean>
		</constructor-arg>
		<constructor-arg>
			<bean class="org.springframework.security.saml.metadata.ExtendedMetadata">
				<!-- add properties to extend the metadata -->
				<!-- see https://docs.spring.io/spring-security-saml/docs/current/reference/html/configuration-metadata.html for values -->
				<property name="local" value="false" />
			</bean>
		</constructor-arg>
		<property name="metadataTrustCheck" value="true" />
	</bean>

Change metadata/idp-metadata.xml to reflect the actual location of the identity provider's metadata file.

classpath: and file:

You can refer to a file as classpath:dir/file or as file:dir/file.

classpath:dir1/file2 refers to a file in directory dir1 under the webapp's classpath; this can mean $webapp/WEB-INF/classes/dir1, but could also mean $tomcat/lib/dir1.

file:/dir1 refers to the top-level directory /dir1; without the '/' it refers to dir1 under the current directory (which is normally the tomcat home directory).

Generate Service Provider metadata

When phixflow-login.xml is configured, you can generate metadata for the PhixFlow server.

 Attempt to login using SAML / Single Sign-on.
       The login attempt generates metadata. However the login itself will fail because you have not yet installed PhixFlow's metadata in the identity provider.

Login as a local user with administration rights.
       You need to be logged in in order to download the metadata file.

Download the metadata file.
      Browse to the directory phixflow/saml/metadata, for example https://myhost.com/phixflow/saml/metadata.

Save the resulting metadata file.

Install the Service Provider Metadata in the Identity Provider

How you do this is specific to the Identity Provider.

Configure Attribute Map

As part of the SAML / Single sign-on process, the identity provider sends details of the user who is logging in as a set of name/value pairs. An Attribute Map defines how PhixFlow maps the identity provider's attribute names to the names required by PhixFlow.

Find the attribute map section:

	<!-- map external user attribute names to saml response attribute names -->
	<bean id="example1SamlAttributeMap"	class="com.accipia.centerview.util.security.UserDetailsMapper" >
		<!-- this will be used to mark external users in the database as from this login provider / domain -->
		<property name="domain" value="mysaml.org" />
		<property name="username" value="urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1" />
		<property name="firstname" value="urn:oid:2.5.4.42" />
		<property name="lastname" value="urn:oid:2.5.4.4" />
		<property name="phonenumber" value="urn:oid:2.5.4.20" />
		<property name="company" value="urn:oid:2.5.4.10" />
		<property name="department" value="urn:oid:2.5.4.11" />
		<property name="email" value="urn:oid:0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.3" />
		<property name="groups" value="1.2.840.113556.1.2.613" />
		<property name="authorisationOnly" value="false" />
	</bean>

Create a new map by copying the example and changing its id.

Change the domain to the value you want to be displayed as the domain for any users who login using SAML.

Change the property values to match the attributes supplied by the identity provider.

If the login provider is to be used for authorisation only set the property to true in the attribute map. In this case domain, username and authorisationOnly are the only properties which must be set. The rest of the attributes will be ignored if set.

Turn on debug logging in logback.xml for com.accipia.centerview.util.security, the log file will show the attributes and values that are available.

Configure SAML User Details Service

The user details service is responsible for mapping the working out which attribute map to use, based on the identity provider's entity id.

Find the following section:

	<bean id="samlUserDetailsService"
		class="com.accipia.centerview.util.security.ResolvingSAMLUserDetailsService" >
		<property name="externalUserLoader" ref="externalUserLoader" />
		<property name="mappers">
			<util:map>
				<!-- the key is the identity provider's entity id: add an entry for each external identity-provider -->
				<entry key="exampleEntityId">
					<ref bean="example1SamlAttributeMap" />
				</entry>
			</util:map>
		</property>
	</bean>

Change exampleEntityId to match the value of entityID sent by the identity provider. This should be in the metadata provided, but you can also see it by turning on logging as in the previous section.

Change example1SamlAttributeMap to reflect the id of the attribute map created in the previous section.

Configure External Groups

Each PhixFlow User Group defines a list of external group names which grant access rights (the rights to view, activate, change, delete objects) conferred by membership of those user groups. For a user to login using SAML, he must be in at least one external group listed on one user group.

System Configuration also defines a list of external login groups. For a user to login, either the list must be empty or the user must be in at least one of the groups listed.

A user who successfully logs in using SAML / Single Sign-on is considered a member of each User Group, and has the access rights of that User Group, if  he is a member of any of the User Group's External Login Groups.

External group names may contain references to the current instance name as '{instance}' e.g. 'ADMIN_{instance}'. This allow groups to be moved from one instance to another and for each instance to use it's own set of external group names.

See Configure Groups for External Login for how to configure External Login groups.

Troubleshooting

Enhanced diagnostics can be generated by adding the lines

#Log information about the SAML login framework
<logger name="org.springframework.security" level="error" />
<logger name="com.accipia.centerview.util.security" level="debug" />
<logger name="org.springframework.security.saml" level = "debug" />
<logger name="org.opensaml" level="debug" />

to your logback.xml file - see Server Log Files for details on controlling logging options with this file, and where to find the results.

Note that with all options applied, the log files generated will be very large. You must switch off these options as soon as you have completed your tests. You can comment out the lines in the logback.xml file, if you want to keep them in the file, by placing a # at the beginning of each line.

You could also consider applying a more limited set of debugging options, e.g.

<logger name="org.springframework.security" level="error" />
<logger name="com.accipia.centerview.util.security" level="debug" />

Please let us know if we could improve this page feedback@phixflow.com