Two factor authentication for OpenAM

 
Last Updated: December 20, 2024

Overview

LoginTC OpenAM Connector allows administrators to incorporate two-factor authentication within their OpenAM authentication policies.
 
Explore how LoginTC integrates with OpenAM below.
 

Subscription Requirement
Your organization requires the Starter or Professional plan to use the LoginTC OpenAM Connector. Explore Pricing Plans

Authentication Flow

The following diagram illustrates a seamless LoginTC OpenAM Connector integration into an existing corporate network protected by OpenAM. The circled numbers indicate the step in a typical authentication flow.

The LoginTC OpenAM Authentication module is installed in your OpenAM server. It can be configured as a stand-alone policy or added to an existing authentication chain. When a user attempts to access a protected resource, the request is intercepted and the configured authentication policy is applied. When the LoginTC Authentication module is activated an out of band request is sent to the users mobile app. The request will launch the LoginTC app and gives the user an opportunity to approve or deny the request and then enter their PIN or passcode. The user’s selection is sent back to module which will succeed in the OpenAM authentication chain if the credential was unlocked, otherwise the authentication will fail.

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Enterprise subscription required
Please contact our sales team for trial access to the LoginTC OpenAM Connector.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, please ensure you have the following:

  1. LoginTC Cloud Administrator AccountAn administrator account allows you to perform management, maintenance and monitoring of your own LoginTC organization. An organization is where you manage domains, users, add and remove administrators and various other settings.

    Sign Up for an administrator account at LoginTC Admin Panel.

  2. OpenAM InstallationIf you do not already have OpenAM, full installation instructions can be found on ForgeRock’s wiki: OpenAM Installation. This installation guide was written for OpenAM 10.1.0.
  3. User Data Store, e.g. Active Directory, LDAP Server, OpenDJThis datastore is the same as the one configured for your OpenAM server. Users from your data store will be synchronized with LoginTC Admin. Passwords are not stored in LoginTC Admin, only information about users like name, username and email.
OpenAM Domain Creation

Protecting a corporate network or application is done by creating a new domain in your organization. There are various types of domains specific to what you are trying to protect. In this case, since the protected resource is controlled by OpenAM, use an OpenAM domain.

Steps to create a new OpenAM domain:

  1. Log in to LoginTC Admin
  2. Click Domains:
  3. Click Add Domain:Create Domain
  4. Enter a name and optionally pick an iconCreate Domain Form
  5. Scroll down and click Create

Use Default Domain Settings
Domain settings can be modified at any time by navigating to Domains > Your Domain > Settings.

Installation

The LoginTC OpenAM Connector contains:

  • OpenAM Authentication module
  • OpenAM REST datastore client
  • Java WAR utility to manage and sync data stores with LoginTC Admin

Before you begin, log into your OpenAM server via ssh:

  1. Create a LoginTC directory:
    mkdir -p /opt/logintc
                cd /opt/logintc
  2. Copy the latest LoginTC OpenAM Connector to /opt/logintc on your OpenAM server and unzip
    unzip logintc-openam-connector-x.x.x.zip

Enterprise subscription required

Please contact our sales team for trial access to the LoginTC OpenAM Connector.

Configuration for OpenAM Authentication

Run Install Script

Before you begin, log into your OpenAM server via ssh:

  1. Go to LoginTC directory where the connector was downloaded
    cd /opt/logintc
  2. Stop your application server, i.e. tomcat
    sudo service tomcat stop
  3. Run install command
    ./install.sh /opt/logintc/logintcauth.jar /usr/share/tomcat/webapps/openam
                
                First argument is the path to the `logintcauth.jar`
                Second argument is the path to the OpenAM exploded WAR
  4. Start your application server, i.e. tomcat
    sudo service tomcat start

Enable Authentication Module

  1. Navigate to your OpenAM installation, http://www.myopenam.com:8080/openam
  2. Log in using administrator credentials
  3. Enable ssoadm, the configuration of core services:
    1. Click on Configuration > Servers and Sites tab
    2. Click on your server under Servers
    3. Click on the Advanced tab
    4. Click the Add button and add a new entry: ssoadm.disabled with value false
    5. Save
  4. Restart your application server, i.e. tomcat
    sudo service tomcat restart
  5. Navigate to http://www.myopenam.com:8080/openam/ssoadm.jsp
  6. Click create-svc
  7. Copy the contents from /opt/logintc/amAuthLoginTCAuth.xml and paste it in the form and click Submit
  8. Navigate to http://www.myopenam.com:8080/openam/ssoadm.jsp
  9. Click register-auth-module
  10. Type in com.cyphercor.logintc.openam.LoginTCAuth and click Submit
  11. Restart your application server, i.e. tomcat
    sudo service tomcat restart

Create New Module Instance

  1. Navigate to your OpenAM installation, http://www.myopenam.com:8080/openam
  2. Click Access Control
  3. Select and click a Realm
  4. Click Authentication tab
  5. Create new Module Instance
    1. Click New under Module Instances
    2. Enter the name LoginTC
    3. Select LoginTC as Type
    4. Click OK
  6. Click on LoginTC in the Modules list to configure the module
    Property Explanation
    Authentication Level The authentication level associated with this module
    Admin Host LoginTC Admin host
    Organization API Key The 64-character API key associated with your LoginTC Admin organization
    Domain ID The 40-character ID associated with your OpenAM domain
    Timeout Time in seconds to wait for authentication
  7. When finished click Save
  8. Restart tomcat on this server
    sudo service tomcat restart
User Management

One-way user synchronization of users from your OpenAM datastore directory to your OpenAM domain in LoginTC Admin is done by running logintc-sync.

logintc-sync will connect via REST to your OpenAM installation and sync users according to settings in users.cfg and fetch users from your directory using the filter query. If you wish to keep your user directory in sync with the users in your OpenAM domain in LoginTC Cloud, you may periodically run this command (without the --dry-run flag).

Go to conf in the installation directory:

cd /opt/logintc/conf

Copy the sample file as a template for your configuration file:

cp sample-users.cfg users.cfg

Open the file to modify its contents:

vi users.cfg
            
            # openam
            openam.protocol=http
            openam.host=www.myopenam.com
            openam.port=8080
            openam.path=/openam
            openam.admin.username=amadmin
            openam.admin.password=password
            openam.realm=/
            openam.attr.username=uid
            openam.attr.name=cn
            openam.attr.email=mail
            openam.filter.objectclass=person
            
            # logintc
            logintc.apikey=
            logintc.domainid=

OpenAM configuration values:

Property Explanation Examples
openam.protocol The protocol of your OpenAM server http or https
openam.host The host of your OpenAM server www.myopenam.com
openam.port The port of your OpenAM server 8080
openam.path The path to your OpenAM installation /openam
openam.admin.username The username of a user with admin privileges in the realm amadmin
openam.admin.password The password of the above account password
openam.realm The realm in which the module is installed /
openam.attr.username The attribute containing the user’s username uid
openam.attr.name The attribute containing the user’s real name cn
openam.attr.email The attribute containing the user’s email mail
openam.filter.objectclass (optional) The object class of the users person

LoginTC configuration values:

Property Explanation
logintc.apikey The 64-character key associated with your LoginTC Admin organization.
logintc.domainid The 40-character id associated with your OpenAM domain.

The API key is found on the LoginTC Admin Settings page. The Domain ID is found on your domain settings page.

Example:

$ cd /opt/logintc/bin
            $ sudo ./logintc-sync /opt/logintc/conf/users.cfg

Output:

Processing /opt/logintc/users.cfg...
            Querying OpenAM Rest service [http://www.myopenam.com:8080]
            Found 2 users
            +-------+----------+----------+----------------------+
            | Realm | Username | Name     | Email                |
            +-------+----------+----------+----------------------+
            | /     | john.doe | John Doe | john.doe@example.com |
            | /     | jane.doe | Jane Doe | jane.doe@example.com |
            +-------+----------+----------+----------------------+
            Synchronizing 2 users...
            Done.

Check that your users were added to your domain by viewing them in LoginTC Admin Panel.

There are several other options for managing your users within LoginTC:

Testing

Once you have synchronized some users you can test the LoginTC module.

Navigate to www.myopenam.com:8080/openam/UI/Login?module=LoginTC

Enter the test user’s username. You should now receive an authentication request on your mobile device. After authenticating you will be shown OpenAM user data.

Authentication Chaining

Now that everything is tested you will want to create or modify an existing authentication chain to include the LoginTC.

  1. Navigate to your OpenAM installation, http://www.myopenam.com:8080/openam
  2. Click Access Control
  3. Select and click a Realm
  4. Click Authentication tab
  5. Create new Authentication Chaining
    1. Click New under Authentication Chaining
    2. Enter LoginTC and click OK
  6. Configure the new Authentication Chain
    1. Click Add
    2. Selet LoginTC
    3. Set Criteria to REQUIRED
    4. Click Save
    5. Click Back to Authentication
  7. Restart your application server, i.e. tomcat
    sudo service tomcat restart
  8. Test the new Authentication Chain
    1. Navigate to www.myopenam.com:8080/openam/UI/Login?service=LoginTC
    2. Enter the test user’s username. You should now receive an authentication request on your mobile device. After authenticating you will be shown OpenAM user data.

You can add other authentication modules to make chains. For example the following will first prompt for a username and password and then request a 2nd factor using the LoginTC:

Sample flow:

User Enrolment

Once users have been synched to your OpenAM domain and you have tested your setup you can begin the process of user provisioning.

As seen in the Testing Installation section, users are issued a confirmation code which they use to load a new token on their mobile app. The Issue Token button will send an email to your user with full instructions on how to load a token. Sample email:

Additional Resources

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