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Documentation

Duo Two-Factor Authentication for PingFederate

Last Updated: October 31st, 2024

Contents

Ping Identity has partnered with Duo Security to provide two-factor authentication for PingFederate logins, offering ßinline user enrollment, self-service device management, and support for a variety of authentication methods — such as passkeys and security keys, Duo Push, or Verified Duo Push — in the Duo Universal Prompt.

PingFederate® is a full-featured federation server that provides identity management, web single sign-on, and API security for customers, partners, and employees. Users can securely access the applications they require with a single identity using any device. PingFederate® supports all of the current identity standards including SAML, WS-Federation, WS-Trust, OAuth, and OpenID Connect.

Duo's two-factor authentication is now available for PingFederate SSO user logins.

Connectivity Requirements

This application communicates with Duo's service on SSL TCP port 443.

Firewall configurations that restrict outbound access to Duo's service with rules using destination IP addresses or IP address ranges aren't recommended, since these may change over time to maintain our service's high availability. If your organization requires IP-based rules, please review Duo Knowledge Base article 1337.

Effective June 30, 2023, Duo no longer supports TLS 1.0 or 1.1 connections or insecure TLS/SSL cipher suites. See Duo Knowledge Base article 7546 for additional guidance.

First Steps

  1. Sign up for a Duo account.
  2. Log in to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to ApplicationsProtect an Application.
  3. Locate the entry for PingFederate in the applications list. Click Protect to the far-right to configure the application. and get your Client ID, Client secret, and API hostname. You'll need this information to complete your setup. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications with Duo and additional application options.

    Previously, the Client ID was called the "Integration key" and the Client secret was called the "Secret key".

Treat your secret key like a password

The security of your Duo application is tied to the security of your secret key (skey). Secure it as you would any sensitive credential. Don't share it with unauthorized individuals or email it to anyone under any circumstances!

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
 Duo Push in Universal Prompt  Duo Push in Traditional Prompt

For Ping Federate applications created before March 2024, migration to Universal Prompt is a three-step process:

  1. Install an update for the Ping Federate application, which implements a redirect to Duo during authentication to support the Universal Prompt.
  2. Authenticate with Duo 2FA using the updated application so that Duo makes the Universal Prompt activation setting available in the Admin Panel. This first authentication after updating shows the traditional Duo prompt in a redirect instead of an iframe.
  3. From the Duo Admin Panel, activate the Universal Prompt experience for users of that Duo Ping Federate application if the traditional prompt is still selected. Once activated, all users of the application see the Duo Universal Prompt in a redirect.

If you created your Ping Federate 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.

New Ping Federate Applications

When you install the latest version of Ping Federate you're ready to use the Universal Prompt. Ping Federate applications created after March 2024 have the Universal Prompt activated by default. If you're configuring Ping Federate now, proceed with the installation instructions in this document.

The "Universal Prompt" area of the application details page shows this application as "Activation complete", 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.

Universal Prompt Info - Universal Prompt Activation Complete

Existing Ping Federate Applications

Ping Federate needs a software update from Ping installed to support the Universal Prompt. The "Universal Prompt" section reflects this status as "Update required" today. To update the Ping Federate Duo application to a newer version, follow the update directions below.

Universal Prompt Info - Update Required

Once a user authenticates to Ping Federate via the updated Duo application, the "Universal Prompt" section of the Ping Federate application page reflects this status as "Ready to activate", with these activation control options:

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

Universal Prompt Info - Application Ready for Universal Prompt

In addition, the "Integration key" and "Secret key" property labels for the application update to "Client ID" and "Client secret" respectively. The values for these properties remain the same.

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.

Enable the Universal Prompt experience by selecting Show new Universal Prompt if the traditional prompt is still selected, and then scrolling to the bottom of the page to click Save.

Once you activate the Universal Prompt, the application's Universal Prompt status shows "Activation complete" here and on the Universal Prompt Update Progress report.

Universal Prompt Info - Universal Prompt Activation Complete

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.

Configure Duo in PingFederate

The Duo Security Integration Kit 3.0 and later has built-in support for Duo's Universal Prompt. Learn more about these changes in the Overview of the Duo Security Integration Kit 3.0 and later.

  1. Download the Duo Security Integration Kit 3.x zip file from PingFederate Server Add-ons page (Ping account login required).

  2. Refer to Ping Identity's Duo Security Integration Kit Product Documentation for installation and configuration instructions. Follow the directions to deploy Duo in your PingFederate environment.

Update the Duo Integration Kit

The Duo Security Integration Kit 3.0 and later has built-in support for Duo's Universal Prompt. Learn more about these changes in the Overview of the Duo Security Integration Kit 3.0 and later.

To upgrade your installed v2.x Duo integration kit to v3.x:

  1. Download the Duo Security Integration Kit 3.x zip file from the "Add-ons" tab on the PingFederate Server download page (Ping account login required).

  2. Refer to Ping Identity's Duo Security Integration Kit Product Documentation for instructions for upgrading an existing deployment. Follow the directions to update Duo in your PingFederate environment. You'll need to update each server in your PingFederate cluster separately.

After upgrading, authenticate once with the v3.x Duo integration, which will show the traditional Duo Prompt in a redirect instead of the iframe. After that you can activate Universal Prompt for your application.

Troubleshooting

Need some help? Reach out to Duo Support for assistance with creating the PingFederate application in Duo, enrolling users in Duo, Duo policy questions, or Duo authentication approval issues. For assistance configuring or managing PingFederate, or issues installing the integration kit, please contact Ping Support.