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Duo offers a variety of methods for adding two-factor authentication and flexible security policies to Looker SSO logins, complete with inline self-service enrollment and Duo Prompt.
Duo Access Gateway reaches Last Day of Support on October 26, 2023 for Duo Essentials, Advantage, and Premier customers. As of that date Duo Support may only assist with the migration of existing Duo Access Gateway applications to Duo Single Sign-On. Customers may not create new DAG applications after May 19, 2022. Please see the Guide to Duo Access Gateway end of life for more details.
Use the Duo Single Sign-on for Looker application to protect Looker with Duo Single Sign-On, our cloud-hosted identity provider featuring Duo Central and the Duo Universal Prompt.
Overview
As business applications move from on-premises to cloud hosted solutions, users experience password fatigue due to disparate logons for different applications. Single sign-on (SSO) technologies seek to unify identities across systems and reduce the number of different credentials a user has to remember or input to gain access to resources.
While SSO is convenient for users, it presents new security challenges. If a user's primary password is compromised, attackers may be able to gain access to multiple resources. In addition, as sensitive information makes its way to cloud-hosted services it is even more important to secure access by implementing two-factor authentication and zero-trust policies.
Duo Access Gateway
Duo Access Gateway (DAG), our on-premises SSO product, layers Duo's strong authentication and flexible policy engine on top of Looker logins using the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 authentication standard. Duo Access Gateway acts as an identity provider (IdP), authenticating your users using existing on-premises or cloud-based directory credentials and prompting for two-factor authentication before permitting access to Looker.
Duo Access Gateway is included in the Duo Premier, Duo Advantage, and Duo Essentials plans, which also include the ability to define policies that enforce unique controls for each individual SSO application. For example, you can require that Salesforce users complete two-factor authentication at every login, but only once every seven days when accessing Looker. Duo checks the user, device, and network against an application's policy before allowing access to the application.
Deploy or Update Duo Access Gateway
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Install Duo Access Gateway on a server in your DMZ. Follow our instructions for deploying the server, configuring DAG settings, and adding your primary authentication source.
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Add the attributes from the table below that correspond to the Duo attributes Mail attribute, First Name attribute, and Last Name attribute in the "Attributes" field when configuring your Active Directory or OpenLDAP authentication source in the DAG admin console, separated by a comma. For example, if Active Directory is your authentication source, enter mail,givenName,sn in the "Attributes" field.
Duo Attribute Active Directory OpenLDAP Mail attribute mail mail First Name attribute givenName gn Last Name attribute sn sn If your organization uses other directory attributes than the ones listed here then enter those attribute names instead. If you've already configured the attributes list for another cloud service provider, append the additional attributes not already present to the list, separated by a comma.
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After completing the initial DAG configuration steps, click Applications on the left side of the Duo Access Gateway admin console.
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Scroll down the Applications page to the Metadata section. This is the information you need to provide to Looker when configuring SSO. Make note of the Entity ID you will need this later.
Create the Looker Application in Duo
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Log on to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to Applications → Protect an Application.
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Locate the entry for Looker with a protection type of "2FA with SSO self-hosted (Duo Access Gateway)" in the applications list. Click Protect to the far-right to start configuring Looker. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications in Duo and additional application options.
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The Subdomain name is the subdomain used when logging into your organization's Looker account. For example, if your Looker login URL is yourdomain.looker.com then enter yourdomain as the subdomain name in Duo.
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Looker uses the Mail attribute, First name attribute, and Last name attribute when authenticating. We've mapped those to DAG supported authentication source attributes as follows:
Duo Attribute Active Directory OpenLDAP SAML IdP Google Azure Mail attribute mail mail mail email mail First name attribute givenName gn givenName given_name givenName Last name attribute sn sn sn family_name surname If you are using non-standard attributes for your authentication source, check the Custom attributes box and enter the names of the attributes you wish to use instead.
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Click Save Configuration to generate a downloadable configuration file.
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You can adjust additional settings for your new SAML application at this time — like changing the application's name from the default value, enabling self-service, or assigning a group policy — or come back and change the application's policies and settings after you finish SSO setup. If you do update any settings, click the Save Changes button when done.
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Click the Download your configuration file link to obtain the Looker application settings (as a JSON file).
Important: This file contains information that uniquely identifies this application to Duo. Secure this file as you would any other sensitive or password information. Don't share it with unauthorized individuals or email it to anyone under any circumstances!
Add the Looker Application to Duo Access Gateway
Before you do this, verify that you updated the "Attributes" list for your Duo Access Gateway authentication source as specified here.
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Return to the Applications page of the DAG admin console session.
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Click the Choose File button in the "Add Application" section of the page and locate the Looker SAML application JSON file you downloaded from the Duo Admin Panel earlier. Click the Upload button after selecting the JSON configuration file.
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The Looker SAML application is added.
Enable Looker SSO
Add the Duo Access Gateway as a new single sign-on provider for Looker.
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Log on to Looker as an administrative user and navigate to Admin → SAML Authentication.
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Once on the "SAML Settings" page, check the Enabled option. The page will reload with more options.
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Copy the Entity ID information from the Duo Access Gateway admin console Metadata display and paste it into the Looker IdP Metadata field.
Example: https://yourserver.example.com/dag/saml2/idp/metadata.php
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Click the Load button and the IdP URL, IdP Issuer, and IdP Certificate fields will automatically populate.
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Type https://yourdomain.looker.com/samlcallback into the IdP Audience field. Replace yourdomain with the name of your Looker subdomain.
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Under "User Attribute Settings" type in the Email, First Name, and Last Name attributes from the table below into the Email Attr, FName Attr, and LName Attr fields.
Looker Attribute Duo Attribute Mail attribute mail First name attribute User.FirstName Last name attribute User.LastName -
Under "Role Settings" leave Set Roles from Groups to OFF.
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For Default New User Roles choose default role(s) that newly provisioned users should be assigned.
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Click Test SAML Authentication to open a new window which will redirect you to the Duo Access Gateway. Log in using your IdP credentials and approve Duo two-factor authentication, and get redirected back to the Looker site after authenticating. Close this window and return to the Looker SAML configuration window.
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Toggle Alternate Login for Specified Users on or off to allow Administrators to log in to Looker from https://yourdomain.looker.com/login/email instead of the Duo Access Gateway.
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Leave the default Looker Email/Password for Merge Users Using to automatically convert existing Looker users accounts to be able to sign in using the Duo Access Gateway.
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After you've entered all the required information click Update Settings.
Learn more about Looker SSO at the Looker support site.
Verify SSO
You can log on to Looker by navigating to your Looker page e.g. https://yourdomain.looker.com and click Authenticate. This redirects to the Duo Access Gateway login page. Enter your primary directory logon information, approve Duo two-factor authentication, and get redirected back to the Looker site after authenticating.
Congratulations! Your Looker users now authenticate using Duo Access Gateway.
If you plan to permit use of WebAuthn authentication methods (security keys, U2F tokens, or Touch ID) in the traditional Duo Prompt, Duo recommends configuring allowed hostnames for this application and any others that show the inline Duo Prompt before onboarding your end-users.
The Duo Universal Prompt has built-in protection from unauthorized domains so this setting does not apply.
Microsoft AD FS
Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) is a popular choice for SSO because it easily integrates with the AD identity store many organizations already have deployed. Duo's support for cloud applications and SSO drops in to an existing AD FS installation to provide secondary authentication after a user passes primary authentication (successful Active Directory logon).
If you don't already have AD federation running the first step is to install and configure Microsoft AD FS in your organization. Deployment Guides for AD FS versions 2.1, and 3.0/4.0 are available from Microsoft.
Once your AD FS services are up and running, the second step is to configure the SSO partnership between your AD FS service and the external cloud resource, in this case Looker. Learn more about configuring Looker SSO with AD FS at the Looker Support site.
After you have successfully configured and tested AD FS SSO login to Looker using your AD domain credentials, you can then install the Duo AD FS integration. AD FS protection is included with Duo Essentials, Duo Advantage, and Duo Premier plans.
With the Duo integration for AD FS installed, users pass primary authentication to the AD FS service as usual. Once primary authentication succeeds, users are forwarded to the Duo service for secondary authentication. After approving logon using one of Duo's authentication methods, the user is fully logged in to Looker.
Other Identity Partners
Using a third-party SSO provider for cloud application access? Duo partners with leading cloud SSO providers like Okta and OneLogin to secure access with our strong and flexible authentication platform.
You can also use Duo two-factor authentication with CAS and Shibboleth on-premises IdPs.
Troubleshooting
Need some help? Try searching our Knowledge Base articles or Community discussions. For further assistance, contact Support.