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Canvas SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)

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Canvas LMS SSO solution by miniOrange enables you to streamline your login experience. With miniOrange you can easily configure Single Sign-On (SSO) login into Canvas LMS and other applications, allowing you to seamlessly access them all with a single set of credentials.

Once SSO is enabled for Canvas, you'll be able to securely log in with just one click - no more tedious username and password input required. Whether you're accessing Canvas LMS or other apps, miniOrange SSO simplifies the process and gives you more time to focus on your work.

With miniOrange Canvas SSO, you can:

• Enable your users to automatically login to Canvas
• Have centralized and easy access control of the users
• Connect easily with any external identity source like Azure AD, ADFS, Cognito, etc

Supported SSO Features

miniOrange Canvas SAML integration supports the following features:

• SP Initiated SSO Login: Users can access their Canvas account via a URL or bookmark. They will automatically be redirected to the miniOrange portal for login. Once they've signed on, they'll be automatically redirected and logged into Canvas.
• IdP Initiated SSO Login: Users need to login to the miniOrange first , and then click on the Canvas icon on the applications dashboard to access Canvas.(If you have set up any more Identity Sources, you will log in to that platform).
• JIT Provisioning: Enables the automatic creation of user accounts in Canvas when a person logs in for the first time via Desktop SSO, IDP, or Active Directory (AD) authentication.
• Single Logout: With this feature, you will be automatically logged out of all the applications that are connected with Identity provider (IdP) when you log out from Canvas org or any other app.
• Mandate users to Login using SSO: Single Sign-on can make it mandatory for all users to log in using SSO. This will prevent any person from login using any other source and bypassing the login system. No person will be able to have direct login making it a streamline and secure process.

Prerequisite:

• To get started you need to have an active Canvas account with administrator rights for your organization.
  During Canvas installation, be sure to configure an account name (CANVAS_LMS_ACCOUNT_NAME) for your organization. This is the name that is displayed in Courses > Managed Accounts. See the following for details:
  https://github.com/instructure/canvas-lms/wiki/Production-Start
• The Service Provider metadata values from the Canvas LMS side.

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for Canvas Single Sign-On (SSO)

1. Configure Canvas LMS in miniOrange

• Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
• Go to Apps and click on Add Application button.



• In Choose Application Type click on SAML/WS-FED application type.



• Search for Canvas LMS in the list, if you don't find Canvas LMS in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application via Custom SAML App.

• Upload the XML metadata section from the Canvas in the miniOrange Dashboard using the Import SP Metadata feature..



• Enter the App name as Canvas LMS and the URL as https://your_canvas_domain/saml2. This your Entity ID also.
• Then click on the Import button.
• Click on Next to proceed further.
• In the Attribute Mapping tab, configure the following attributes as shown in the image below.



• Click on Save.

Get IdP Metadata Details to upload to Canvas:

• Go to Apps >> Manage Apps.
• Search for your app and click on the select in action menu against your app.
• Click on Metadata to get metadata details, which will be required later. Click on Show SSO Link to see the IDP initiated SSO link for Canvas.



• Here you will see 2 options, if you are setting up miniOrange as IDP copy the meta details related to miniOrange, if you required to be authenticated via external IDP's (OKTA, AZURE AD, ADFS, ONELOGIN, GOOGLE APPS) you can get metadata from the 2nd Section as shown below.



• Keep SAML Login URL , SAML Logout URL and click on the Download Certificate button to download certificate which you will require in Step 2.

2. Configure SSO in Canvas

• Login to your Canvas LMS domain as an Account Administrator.
• Click on Admin.
• Go to Authentication.



• On the top right side, you will see Add an Identity Provider. From the dropdown, Select SAML.



• Copy the metadata URL copied from step 1 under the IDP metadata URL section.
• Change Authentication Context to urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:unspecified.
• Enable Just in Time Provisioning if you need the feature.
• Click on Save. Your IDP metadata will be auto filled.
• Under the Current providers section, you can see your IDP configured.



• Now let's try SSO using: https://your_canvas_domain/login/saml.

3. Test SSO Configuration

Test SSO login to your Canvas LMS account with miniOrange IdP:

Using SP Initiated Login

• Go to your Canvas LMS URL, here you will be either asked to enter the username or click on the SSO link which will redirect you to miniOrange IdP Sign On Page.



• Enter your miniOrange login credential and click on Login. You will be automatically logged in to your Canvas LMS account.

Using IDP Initiated Login

• Login to miniOrange IdP using your credentials.



• On the Dashboard, click on Canvas LMS application which you have added, to verify SSO configuration.





Not able to configure or test SSO?


Contact us or email us at idpsupport@xecurify.com and we'll help you setting it up in no time.

4. Configure Your User Directory (Optional)

miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Okta, Shibboleth, Ping, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.

• Setup miniOrange as IDP
• Setup AD as User Directory
• Setup External IDP

• To add your users in miniOrange there are 2 ways:

1. Create User in miniOrange

2. Bulk Upload Users

1. Create User in miniOrange

• Click on Users >> User List >> Add User.



• Here, fill the user details without the password and then click on the Create User button.



• After successful user creation a notification message "An end user is added successfully" will be displayed at the top of the dashboard.



• Click on Onboarding Status tab. Check the email, with the registered e-mail id and select action Send Activation Mail with Password Reset Link from Select Action dropdown list and then click on Apply button.



• Now, Open your email id. Open the mail you get from miniOrange and then click on the link to set your account password.
• On the next screen, enter the password and confirm password and then click on the Single Sign-On (SSO) reset password button.



• Now, you can log in into miniOrange account by entering your credentials.

2. Bulk Upload Users in miniOrange via Uploading CSV File.

• Navigate to Users >> User List. Click on Add User button.



• In Bulk User Registration Download sample csv format from our console and edit this csv file according to the instructions.



• To bulk upload users, choose the file make sure it is in comma separated .csv file format then click on Upload.



• After uploading the csv file successfully, you will see a success message with a link.
• Click on that link you will see list of users to send activation mail. Select users to send activation mail and click on Send Activation Mail. An activation mail will be sent to the selected users.

• Click on External Directories >> Add Directory in the left menu of the dashboard.



• Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.



1. STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If active directory is behind a firewall, you will need to open the firewall to allow incoming requests to your AD.
2. STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION ON PREMISE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in your premise and only allow access to AD inside premises. You will have to download and install miniOrange gateway in your premise.




• Enter LDAP Display Name and LDAP Identifier name.
• Select Directory Type as Active Directory.
• Enter the LDAP Server URL or IP Address against LDAP Server URL field.
• Click on Test Connection button to verify if you have made a successful connection with your LDAP server.



• In Active Directory, go to the properties of user containers/OU's and search for Distinguished Name attribute.



• Enter the valid Bind account Password.
• Click on Test Bind Account Credentials button to verify your LDAP Bind credentials for LDAP connection.



• Search Base is the location in the directory where the search for a user begins. You will get this from the same place you got your Distinguished name.



• Select a suitable Search filter from the drop-down menu. If you use User in Single Group Filter or User in Multiple Group Filter, replace the <group-dn> in the search filter with the distinguished name of the group in which your users are present. To use custom Search Filter select "Write your Custom Filter" option and customize it accordingly.



• You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Save button to add user store.




Here's the list of the attributes and what it does when we enable it. You can enable/disable accordingly.

Attribute	Description
Activate LDAP	All user authentications will be done with LDAP credentials if you Activate it
Sync users in miniOrange	Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP
Fallback Authentication	If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange
Allow users to change password	This allows your users to change their password. It updates the new credentials in your LDAP server
Enable administrator login	On enabling this, your miniOrange Administrator login authenticates using your LDAP server
Show IdP to users	If you enable this option, this IdP will be visible to users
Send Configured Attributes	If you enable this option, then only the attributes configured below will be sent in attributes at the time of login



• Click on Save. After this, it will show you the list of User stores. Click on Test Connection to check whether you have enter valid details. For that, it will ask for username and password.



• On Successful connection with LDAP Server, a success message is shown.
• Click on Test Attribute Mapping.



• Enter a valid Username. Then, click on Test. Mapped Attributes corresponding to the user are fetched.



• After successful Attribute Mapping Configuration, go back to the ldap configuration and enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP.

Refer our guide to setup LDAPS on windows server.

User Import and Provisioning from AD

• Go to Settings >> Product Settings in the Customer Admin Account.



• Enable the "Enable User Auto Registration" option and click Save.



• (Optional) To send a welcome email to all the end users that will be imported, enable the "Enable sending Welcome Emails after user registration" option and click Save.



• From the Left-Side menu of the dashboard select Provisioning.



• In Setup Provisioning tab select Active Directory in the Select Application drop-down.
• Toggle the Import Users tab, click on Save button.



• On the same section, switch to Import Users section.
• Select Active Directory from the dropdown and click on the Import Users tab, to import all the users from Active Directory to miniOrange.



• You can view all the Users you have imports by selecting Users >> User List from Left Panel.



• All the imported users will be auto registered.
• These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.

miniOrange integrates with various external user sources such as directories, identity providers, and etc.

• Okta
• ADFS
• Ping
• AWS Cognito
• Many more

Not able to find your IdP or Need help setting it up?

Contact us or email us at idpsupport@xecurify.com and we'll help you setting it up in no time.

5. Adaptive Authentication with Canvas LMS

A. Restricting access to Canvas LMS with IP Blocking

You can use adaptive authentication with Canvas LMS Single Sign-On (SSO) to improve the security and functionality of Single Sign-On. You can allow a IP Address in certain range for SSO or you can deny it based your requirements and you can also challenge the user to verify his authenticity. Adaptive authentication manages the user authentication bases on different factors such as Device ID, Location, Time of Access, IP Address and many more.

You can configure Adaptive Authentication with IP Blocking in following way:

• Login to Self Service Console >> Adaptive Authentication.
• Add a Policy Name for your Adaptive Authentication Policy.



• Select your Action for behavior Change and Challenge Type for user from the Action for behavior Change Section.





Action for behavior Change Options :




Attribute	Description
Allow	Allow user to authenticate and use services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.
Challenge	Challenge users with one of the three methods mentioned below for verifying user authenticity.
Deny	Deny user authentications and access to services if Adaptive authentication condition is true.




Challenge Type Options :




Attribute	Description
User second Factor	The User needs to authenticate using the second factor he has opted or assigned for such as OTP over SMS PUSH Notification OTP over Email And 12 more methods.
KBA (Knowledge-based authentication)	The System will ask user for 2 of 3 questions he has configured in his Self Service Console. Only after right answer to both questions user is allowed to proceed further.
OTP over Alternate Email	User will receive a OTP on the alternate email he has configured threw Self Service Console. Once user provides the correct OTP he is allowed to proceed further.



• Now Enable Enable IP Restriction option from the IP RESTRICTION CONFIGURATION section to configure custom IP range.



• Select the Action you want to perform if the IP address is out of the range. i.e. Allow, Challenge & Deny.
• Specify the IP Address range for which you want above setting to reflect. You can add more than one IP Address ranges by clicking on following button +.
• Scroll to the end and click on save.

B. Adaptive Authentication with Limiting number of devices.

Using Adaptive Authentication you can also restrict the number of devices the end user can access the Services on. You can allow end users to access services on a fixed no. of devices. The end users will be able to access services provided by us on this fixed no. of devices.

You can configure Adaptive Authentication with Device Restriction in following way


• Login to Self Service Console >> Adaptive Authentication.
• Add a Policy Name for your Adaptive Authentication Policy.
• Select your Action for behavior Change and Challenge Type for user from the Action for behavior Change Section.




• Scroll down to Device Configuration section and enable Allow User to Register Device option to allow users to register their devices.
• Enter the Number of Devices which are allowed to register in field next to Number of Device Registrations Allowed
• Choose Action if number of devices exceeded (This will override your setting for Action for behavior Change.)
1. Challenge: The user needs to verify himself using any of the three methods mentioned in table in step 5.1
2. Deny : Deny users access to the system
• Enable option Send email alerts to Users if number of Device registrations exceeded allowed count if you want to alert the user about no of devices exceeding the limit. Save the configuration.

C. Add Adaptive Authentication policy to Canvas LMS.

• Login to Self Service Console >> Policies.
• Click on Edit option for predefined app policy.



• Set your application name in the Application and select password as Login Method.
• Enable Adaptive Authentication on Policy page and select the required restriction method as an option.
• From Select Login Policy dropdown select the policy we created in last step and click on save.

D.Notification and Alert Message.

This section handles the notifications and alerts related to Adaptive Authentication.It provides the following options :

• Get email alerts if users login from unknown devices or locations : Admin need to enable this option to enable receiving alerts for different alert options.
  
  
  

Option	Description
Challenge Completed and Device Registered	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user completes a challenge and registers a device.
Challenge Completed but Device Not Registered	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user completes a challenge but do not registers the device.
Challenge Failed	Enabling this option allows you to send an email alert when an end-user fails to complete the challenge.






• Next subsection is Send email alerts which allows us to enable or disable alerts for admin and end-users. To enable alerts for admins, you can enable the “Administrators” switch button.




• In case you want multiple admins accounts to receive alerts then you can enable the option for admin and then enter the admin emails separated by a ‘,’ in the input field next to Administrators email to receive alerts label. To enable alerts for the end-users, you can enable the “End Users” switch button.
• In case you want to customize the deny message that end user receive in case his authentication denied due to adaptive policy, you can do this by entering the message inside “Deny message for Adaptive Authentication” text box.


How to add a trusted Device

1. When End-user log in to the self service console after the policy for device restriction is on, he is provided the option to add the current device as a trusted device.

Troubleshooting

External References

• Guide For Single Sign On (SSO)
• Read more about Canvas SAML Single Sign-on (SSO)
• What is 2FA/MFA? Enable 2FA/MFA on top of SSO
• Configure Canva Single Sign-On SSO