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Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ​for Apache Web Server

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Apache is the web server which is most frequently used. The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) provides the Apache web server as open source and free. Numerous large platforms, respectively well-known operating systems like Linux, Unix, Windows and Novelles Network as well as many smaller ones are supported.
Apart from the basic functionality as web server the core functionality can be – due to Apache’s modular approach – easily extended with so-called modules. Potential modules are modules for the support of scripting languages like PHP (mod_php5), Perl (mod_perl), Python (mod_python) or Lua (mod_lua) for web server version 2.3 up.

miniOrange 2FA for Apache Web Server

miniOrange accomplishes this by acting as a RADIUS server, that accepts the username/password of the user entered as a RADIUS request, validates the user against the user store as Active Directory ( AD ), prompts him for theTwo-Factor authentication and either grants/revokes access based on the input by the user.

In VPN Clients that support RADIUS Challenge :

• First step is user's username & password get validated against the credentials stored in Active Directory and 2nd request sends a success response, this request is sent to validate the 2-factor authentication of the user, on successful authentication user is granted access to the application.
• Authentication methods: All Authentication methods supported by miniOrange. Software Token, Push Notification, OTP over Email to name a few.
• RADIUS Clients that support this authentication type:
  -> OpenVPN
  -> Palo Alto
  -> Fortinet
  -> Pulse Secure Connect Secure SSL
  -> Juniper Networks VPN

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below to configure 2FA for RD Apache Web Server

1. Add the Radius Client in miniOrange

• Go to Apps. Click on Add Application button.



• Choose Radius as Application Type.



• Select Radius Client.



• Configure details below to add Radius Client.

Client Name:	Any name for your reference.
Client IP:	IP address of VPN server which will send Radius authentication request.
Shared Secret:	Security key. For Eg. "sharedsecret" (Keep this with you, you will need to configure same on VPN Server).
Do not Support Challenge:	Keep this Unchecked.





• Configure the following Policy details for the Radius App.

Group Name:	Group for which the policy will apply.
Policy Name:	Any Identifier that specifies policy name.
Login Method	Login Method for the users associated with this policy.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication	Enables Second Factor during Login for users associated with this policy.
Enable Adaptive Authentication	Enables Adaptive Authentication for Login of users associated with this policy.




• Click on Save.


NOTE: For On-Premise version follow the below steps before testing the connectivity.



Only For On-Premise Version

Step 1: Enable the RADIUS Servlet.

• By Default, the RADIUS Server does not get started with Tomcat.
• Open the WEB.xml file from your miniOrange repository .....\mo-idp-server-3.3.0\moas\WEB_INF\web.xml.
• Search for RadiusServerInit.



• Uncomment the commented RadiusServerInit Servlet.
• Keep the port 1812 open for using RADIUS Service.
• Save and Restart Tomcat.



6. Open Firewall Ports.

• In order to receive the RADIUS request, it is necessary to open UDP traffic on ports 1812 and 1813 for the machine where On-Premise IdP is deployed.
• If the hosting machine is a Windows Machine then you can follow this document.
• If the hosting machine is a Linux Machine then you can follow this document.

NOTE: If your machine is hosted on AWS, then enable the ports from the AWS panel.

2. Configure Apache Web Server

• Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (or equivalent path)
• Ensure LoadModule is present:
  
  LoadModule radius_auth_module /usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_auth_radius-2.0.so
• Inside VirtualHost add:
  
  
# AddRadiusAuth server:port shared_secret timeout[:retries]
# Example server (change to fit your needs):
AddRadiusAuth 192.167.1.40:1812 bigsecret 60:0
# AddRadiusCookieValid time_in_minutes
AddRadiusCookieValid 60
AuthType Basic AuthName "Radius Authentication" AuthBasicProvider "radius" AuthRadiusAuthoritative on AuthRadiusCookieValid 1 AuthRadiusActive On require valid-user ProxyPass http://localhost/private ProxyPassReverse http://localhost/private
Order deny,allow Deny from all ProxyPass http://localhost:8080/mytomcatapp ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:8080/mytomcatapp Allow from 126.0.0.1 Allow from localhost
• Restart httpd:
  
  $ sudo service httpd restart

3. Configure 2FA for Apache Web Server

3.1: Enable 2FA for Users of Apache Web Server app

• To enable 2FA for Users of Apache Web Server application. Go to Policies >> App Login Policy
• Click on Edit against the application you have configured.



• Enable the Enable 2-Factor Authentication (MFA) option.



• Click on Save.

3.2: Configure 2FA for your Endusers

• To enable 2FA/MFA for endusers, go to 2-Factor Authentication >> 2FA Options For EndUsers.
• Select default Two-Factor authentication method for end users. Also, you can select particular 2FA methods, which you want to show on the end users dashboard.
• Once Done with the settings, click on Save to configure your 2FA settings.

3.3: Enduser 2FA Setup

• Login to End-User Dashboard using end user login URL.
• For Cloud Version: The login URL (branding url) which you have set.
• For On-Premise version: The login URL will be the same as of Admin Login URL.
• Select Setup 2FA from left panel. Then select any of the 2FA method available.
• For now, we have selected the SMS >> OTP OVER SMS as our 2FA method. You can explore the guide to setup other 2FA methods here.
• Enable the OTP over SMS if you have your phone number added under your account information else click on Edit >> Click here to update your phone number link.



• In Account Information, click on edit icon.



• Select your country code, enter your mobile number, and click Send OTP.



• Enter the OTP sent to your phone and click Validate.



• After adding your phone number, turn on the toggle to activate OTP over SMS.



• Now Enable 2 Factor Authentication toggle if not done before as shown below.

4. Test miniOrange 2FA setup for Apache Web Server Login

• Test by accessing the protected URL in your browser. The username of the Apache user must match the username of the user created in your miniOrange dashboard and added to the domain you have configured to authenticate against.
• You will be prompted for basic authentication.

5. 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.



• STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If the 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 on 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 the LDAP Server URL field.
• Click on the 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 the Distinguished Name attribute. The bind account should have minimum required read privileges in Active Directory to allow directory lookups. If the use case involves provisioning (such as creating, updating, or deleting users or groups), the account must also be granted appropriate write permissions.



• Enter the valid Bind account Password.
• Click on the 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.



• Click on the Next button, or go to the Authentication tab.
• You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Next 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
Fallback Authentication	If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange
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
Sync users in miniOrange	Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP

• Click on the Next button, or go to the Provisioning tab.

User Import and Provisioning from AD

• If you want to set up provisioning, click here for detailed information. For now, we are skipping this step by clicking Skip on Provisioning.

Attributes Mapping from AD

• By default userName, firstName, lastName, email are configured. Scroll down and click on Save Configurations. To fetch additional attributes from Active Directory, enable Send Configured Attributes. On the left side, enter the name that you wish to release to the applications. On the right side, enter the attribute name from Active Directory. E.g., if you wish to fetch company attribute from Active Directory, and send it as organization to configured applications, enter the following:

  Attribute Name sent to SP = organization
  Attribute Name from IDP = company

Test Connections

• You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Connections and click on it.



• 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.

Test Attribute Mapping

• You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Attribute Mapping and click on it.



• A pop-up will appear to add the username. After clicking Test, you will see the Test Attribute Mapping Result.

Set up AD as External Directory configuration is complete.

Note: Refer our guide to setup LDAP on windows server.

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.

6. Creating User Groups(Recommended)

• Select Groups >> Manage Groups from left panel.



• Click on the Create Group button on the top.
• Enter an appropriate Group Name and click on Create Group.



• In this guide we have created a Group by name VPN_Group.
• Assign various members to the group using the Assign User option associated with the group in the groups list.



• Select the Users that are required to be assigned to this group. Then Select Assign to Group in Select Action Dropdown. Then click Apply.

7. Add Another Policy (Optional)

• Here, we will configure a policy for the User Group that we created in the Step 3 and associate it with the VPN Application.
• Click on Policies tab >> App Authentication Policy.



• Click on Add Policy tab.
• In Step 1 Select the RADIUS App that we configured earlier.
• In Step 2 Select the required User Group in Group Name and enter Policy name as “<Any Name>”.
• In this guide, we will configure a Password Only policy for Open_VPN group. So, only the Open_VPN group members can access VPN Services without a Second Factor.



• Admin can change the second factor of the End user from the User List.



• Under Action Click on Select and then select Change Second Factor.

Further References

• What is Multi Factor Authentication?
• MFA for VPN Solutions
  
• 2FA/MFA for Linux
• 2FA/MFA for RD Web Access
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Notion