Duo Single Sign-On for Google Workspace (Google G Suite)

These same instructions provide SAML SSO to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as well, as Google Workspace and GCP share the underlying domain's authentication configuration. Learn more about SSO and GCP.

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.

About Duo Single Sign-On

Duo Single Sign-On is our cloud-hosted SSO product which layers Duo's strong authentication and flexible policy engine on top of Google Workspace logins. Duo Single Sign-On acts as an identity provider (IdP), authenticating your users using existing on-premises Active Directory (AD) or another SSO IdP. Duo SSO prompts users for two-factor authentication and performs endpoint assessment and verification before permitting access to Google Workspace.

Duo Single Sign-On is available in 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 Google Workspace. Duo checks the user, device, and network against an application's policy before allowing access to the application.

Configure Single Sign-On

Before configuring Google Workspace with Duo SSO using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 authentication you'll first need to enable Duo Single Sign-On for your Duo account and configure a working authentication source.

Once you have your SSO authentication source working, continue to the next step of creating the Google Workspace application in Duo.

Create the Google Workspace Application in Duo

1. Log on to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to Applications → Protect an Application.

2. Locate the entry for Google Workspace with a protection type of "2FA with SSO hosted by Duo (Single Sign-On)" in the applications list. Click Protect to the far-right to start configuring Google Workspace. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications in Duo and additional application options. You'll need the information on the Google Workspace page under Metadata later.

3. Enter your Google Workspace domain name in the Domain name field.

4. Google Workspace uses the Mail attribute when authenticating. We've mapped the <Email Address> bridge attribute to Duo Single Sign-On supported authentication source attributes as follows:

   Bridge Attribute	Active Directory	SAML IdP
   <Email Address>	mail	Email

   If you are using a non-standard email attribute for your authentication source, check the Custom attributes box and enter the name of the attribute you wish to use instead.

5. 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.

6. Keep the Duo Admin Panel tab open. You will come back to it later.

Duo Universal Prompt

The Duo Universal Prompt provides a simplified and accessible Duo login experience for web-based applications, offering a redesigned visual interface with security and usability enhancements.

Universal Prompt	Traditional Prompt

We've already updated the Duo Google Workspace application hosted in Duo's service to support the Universal Prompt, so there's no action required on your part to update the application itself. If you created your Google Workspace application before March 2024, you can activate the Universal Prompt experience for users from the Duo Admin Panel. Google Workspace applications created after March 2024 have the Universal Prompt activated by default.

If you created your Google Workspace application before March 2024, it's a good idea to read the Universal Prompt Update Guide for more information, about the update process and the new login experience for users, before you activate the Universal Prompt for your application.

Activate Universal Prompt

Activation of the Universal Prompt is a per-application change. Activating it for one application does not change the login experience for your other Duo applications.

The "Universal Prompt" area of the application details page shows that this application is "Ready to activate", with these activation control options:

• Show traditional prompt: Your users experience Duo's traditional prompt via redirect when logging in to this application.
• Show new Universal Prompt: (Default) Your users experience the Universal Prompt via redirect when logging in to this application.

The application's Universal Prompt status shows "Activation complete" here and on the Universal Prompt Update Progress report.

Should you ever want to roll back to the traditional prompt, you can return to this setting and change it back to Show traditional prompt. However, this will still deliver the Duo prompt via redirect, not in an iframe. Keep in mind that support for the traditional Duo prompt ended for the majority of applications in March 2024.

Universal Update Progress

Click the See Update Progress link to view the Universal Prompt Update Progress report. This report shows the update availability and migration progress for all your Duo applications. You can also activate the new prompt experience for multiple supported applications from the report page instead of visiting the individual details pages for each application.

Enable Google Workspace SSO

You can add a third-party SSO profile for your organization that everyone uses, or you can add SSO profiles to different units or groups. Instructions for both are shown below.

Third-Party SSO Organization Profile

1. Log into your Google dashboard.

2. Click your profile icon in the top right corner of the page, and then click Admin console.

3. In the left menu sidebar, navigate to Security → Authentication → SSO with third party IdP.

4. Scroll down to the "Third-party SSO profile for your organization" section and click the Edit SSO profile for your organization icon.

5. Click the Set up SSO with third-party identity provider checkbox.

6. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Metadata", copy the Sign-in page URL and paste it into the Google Workspace Sign-in page URL field.

   Example: https://sso-abc1def2.sso.duosecurity.com/saml2/sp/DIABC123678901234567/sso

7. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Sign-out page URL and paste it into the Google Workspace Sign-out page URL field.

   Example: https://sso-abc1def2.sso.duosecurity.com/saml2/sp/DIABC123678901234567/slo

8. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Downloads", click Download certificate.

9. Return to Google Workspace. Under "Verification certificate", open the certificate you downloaded from Duo earlier.

10. In Google Workspace, click the Use a domain specific issuer checkbox.

11. For Active Directory password changes, do one of the following:

    • Enter your organization web service URL into the Google Workspace Change password URL field.

    • Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Sign-out page URL and paste it into the Google Workspace Change password URL field.

    

12. At the bottom of the page, click SAVE.

13. Minimize the "Third-party SSO profile for your organization" section.

14. Scroll down to the "Manage SSO profile assignments" section and click MANAGE.

15. Click the Organization's third-party SSO profile radio button.

    

16. At the bottom of the page, click SAVE.

17. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Service Provider", click the SSO with third party IdP drop-down menu and select Third-party SSO profile organization.

18. In the Duo Admin Panel, enter your domain into the Domain name field.

    Example: If your email address is user@example.com, your domain is example.com.

19. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Third-Party SSO Profiles

1. Log into your Google dashboard.

2. Click your profile icon in the top right corner of the page, and then click Admin console.

3. In the left menu sidebar, navigate to Security → Authentication → SSO with third party IdP.

4. Scroll down to the "Third-party SSO profiles" section and click ADD SAML PROFILE.

5. Enter a unique name for your SAML SSO profile into the SSO profile name field.

6. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Metadata", copy the IDP entity ID and paste it into the Google Workspace IDP entity ID field.

   Example: https://sso-abc1def2.sso.duosecurity.com/saml2/sp/DIABC123678901234567/metadata

7. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Sign-in page URL and paste it into the Google Workspace Sign-in page URL field.

   Example: https://sso-abc1def2.sso.duosecurity.com/saml2/sp/DIABC123678901234567/sso

8. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Sign-out page URL and paste it into the Google Workspace Sign-out page URL field.

   Example: https://sso-abc1def2.sso.duosecurity.com/saml2/sp/DIABC123678901234567/slo

9. For Active Directory password changes, do one of the following:

   • Enter your organization web service URL into the Google Workspace Change password URL field.

   • Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Sign-out page URL and paste it into the Google Workspace Change password URL field.

10. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Downloads", click Download certificate.

11. Return to Google Workspace. Under "Verification certificate", click UPLOAD CERTIFICATE and open the certificate you downloaded from Duo earlier.

    

12. At the bottom of the page, click SAVE.

13. Minimize the "SAML SSO profile" section.

14. Scroll down to the "Manage SSO profile assignments" section and click MANAGE.

15. Click the Another SSO profile radio button and select your created profile from the Select SSO profile drop-down menu.

16. Click the Have Google prompt for their username, then redirect them to this profile's IDP sign-in page radio button.

    

17. At the bottom of the page, click SAVE.

18. Minimize the "Manage SSO profile assignments" section.

19. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Service Provider", click the SSO with third party IdP drop-down menu and select Third-party SSO profiles.

20. Return to Google Workspace. In the "Third-party SSO profiles" section, click the SAML profile you created earlier.

21. In the "SP details" section, copy the Entity ID and paste it into the Duo Admin Panel Entity ID field.

    

22. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Learn more about Google Workspace SSO at the Google Workspace Help site.

Google Workspace Session Duration

Google Workspace Business, Education, and Enterprise editions have the ability to customize how long a session remains valid after logging in with a third-party SAML IdP (like Duo Single Sign-On). Set this in the Google Admin console under Security → Google session Control. Learn more about this Google Workspace option at the Google support site.

Using SSO

You can log on to Google Workspace by navigating to your Google Workspace SSO page e.g., https://workspace.google.com/dashboard. Enter your email address and click Next be redirected to Duo Single Sign-On to begin authentication.

Active Directory Login

With Active Directory as the Duo SSO authentication source, enter the primary username (email address) on the Duo SSO login page and click or tap Next.

Enter the AD primary password and click or tap Log in to continue.

Enable Duo Passwordless to log in to Duo SSO backed by Active Directory authentication without entering a password in the future.

SAML Login

With another SAML identity provider as the Duo SSO authentication source, Duo SSO immediately redirects the login attempt to that SAML IdP for primary authentication. Users do not see the Duo SSO primary login screen.

Duo Authentication

Successful verification of your primary credentials by Active Directory or a SAML IdP redirects back to Duo. Complete Duo two-factor authentication when prompted and then you'll return to Google Workspace to complete the login process.

* Universal Prompt experience shown.

You can also log into Google Workspace using Duo Central, our cloud-hosted portal which allows users to access all of their applications in one spot. Link to Google Workspace in Duo Central by adding it as an application tile. Once the tile has been added, log into Duo Central and click the tile for IdP-initiated authentication to Google Workspace.

Users can also enter the email address on the main Google Workspace login page https://accounts.google.com) and click the Sign In button (with a blank password) to be forwarded to the Duo Single Sign-On logon page.

Google Workspace super administrators never redirect to Duo Single Sign-On from Google and always log in via the Google login page, without Duo.

You can also log into Google Workspace using Duo Central, our cloud-hosted portal which allows users to access all of their applications in one spot. Link to Google Workspace in Duo Central by adding it as an application tile. Once the tile has been added, log into Duo Central and click the tile for IdP-initiated authentication to Google Workspace.

Congratulations! Your Google Workspace users now authenticate using Duo Single Sign-On.

See the full user login experience, including expired password reset (available for Active Directory authentication sources) in the Duo End User Guide for SSO.

Enable Remembered Devices

To minimize additional Duo two-factor prompts when switching between Google Workspace and your other Duo Single Sign-On SAML applications, be sure to apply a shared "Remembered Devices" policy to your SAML applications.

Troubleshooting

Need some help? Try searching our Knowledge Base articles or Community discussions. For further assistance, contact Support.