Firebase SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
Firebase is the best platform for mobile application development which produces quality apps with features like app indexing, cloud messaging, remote configuration, hosting and In-app advertising. Firebase provides authentication options like backend services, easy-to-use SDKs, and ready-made UI libraries to authenticate users to your app. It supports authentication using passwords, phone numbers, popular federated identity providers like Google, Facebook and Twitter, and more. Firebase Authentication integrates tightly with other Firebase services, and it leverages industry standards like JWT, OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, so it can be easily integrated with custom backend.
We will be demonstrating below how we can achieve Single Sign-On (SSO) into Firebase using one or multiple SAML 2.0 compliant Identity Provider. We will be using miniOrange cloud service to achieve this. We support all known IDPs like miniOrange, Google Apps, ADFS, Okta, OneLogin, Azure AD, Salesforce, Shibboleth, SimpleSAMLphp, OpenAM, Centrify, Ping, RSA, IBM, Oracle, Bitium, WSO2, NetIQ etc.
Prerequisites
Please make sure your organisation branding is already set under Customization >> Login and Registration Branding in the left menu of the dashboard.
Connect with External Source of Users
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, OpenLDAP, AWS etc), Identity Providers (like Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, AWS), and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.
Follow the step-by-step guide to setup Firbase App Single Sign-On (SSO)
1. Configure Firebase in miniOrange
- Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
- Go to Apps and click on Add Application button.
- In Choose Application, select SAML/WS-FED from the application type dropdown.
- Search for Firebase in the list, if you don't find Firebase in the list then, search for custom and you can set up your application in Custom SAML App.
2. Configure miniOrange in your IDP
- Add Firebase to your JavaScript project.
- If you haven't upgraded to Firebase Authentication with Identity Platform, do so. SAML authentication is only available in upgraded projects.
- On the Sign-in providers page of the Firebase console, click Add new provider, and then click SAML
- Give a name to this provider. Note the provider ID that's generated: something like saml.example-provider. You'll need this ID when you add sign-in code to your app.
- Specify your identity provider's entity ID, SSO URL, and public key certificate that you have copied from step 1. Also specify the entity ID of your app (the service provider). These values must exactly match the values your provider assigned to you.
- Save your changes.
- If you haven't already authorized your app's domain, add it to the allow list on the Authentication > Settings page of the Firebase console.
3. Configure Your User Directory
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.
- Click on External Directories >> Add Directory in the left menu of the dashboard.
- Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.
- 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.
- 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.
External References
