Duo Single Sign-On for Moodle

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 Moodle logins using the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 or OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication standards. Duo Single Sign-On acts as an OpenID provider (OP), authenticating your users using existing on-premises Active Directory (AD) or any SAML 2.0 IdP and prompting for two-factor authentication before permitting access to Moodle.

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 Moodle. Duo checks the user, device, and network against an application's policy before allowing access to the application.

Configure Single Sign-On

Before configuring Moodle with Duo SSO using OpenID Connect (OIDC) 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 Moodle application in Duo.

When configuring an application to be protected with Duo Single Sign-On you'll need to send attributes from Duo Single Sign-On to the application. Active Directory will work with no additional setup, but if you used a SAML idenity provider as your authentication source please verify that you configured it to send the correct SAML attributes.

Below you can see the default bridge attributes that automatically map certain attributes from your authentication source.

Bridge Attribute	Active Directory	SAML IdP
<Username>	sAMAccountName	Username
<Email Address>	mail	Email
<Display Name>	displayName	DisplayName
<First Name>	givenName	FirstName
<Last Name>	sn	LastName

Create the Moodle Application in Duo

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

2. Locate the entry for Moodle 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 Moodle. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications with Duo and additional application options. You'll need the information on the Moodle page under Metadata later.

3. The Metadata section contains OpenID provider information about Duo Single Sign-On you will provide to Moodle at a later configuration step.

4. Scopes are used by Moodle during authentication to authorize access to a user's details. Each scope returns a set of user attributes (claims) that must be mapped to IdP attributes. When an application sends an OIDC request to Duo SSO, the response sends only the claims from the requested scopes.

   We've automatically enabled the following scopes and mapped the listed attributes. You can change the attribute sent from your authentication source by modifying the IdP Attribute name related to each claim:

   • Profile Scope:

     IdP Attribute	Claim
     <First Name>	given_name
     <Last Name>	family_name

   • Email Scope:

     IdP Attribute	Claim
     <Email>	email

   

5. You can adjust additional settings for your new SSO 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

The Duo Moodle application supports the Universal Prompt by default, so there's no additional action required on your part to start using the newest authentication experience.

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. Universal Prompt is already activated for new Moodle applications at creation.

The "Universal Prompt" area of the application details page shows that this application's status is "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.

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

For the time being, you may change this setting to Show traditional prompt to use the legacy experience. Keep in mind that support for the traditional Duo prompt ended for the majority of applications in March 2024. This option will be removed in the future.

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 Moodle

1. Log into your Moodle account as an administrator.

2. At the top of the page, click the Site administration tab. The "Site administration" page opens.

3. Click the Plugins tab.

4. Scroll down to the Authentication section and click OpenID Connect. The "Category: OpenID Connect" page opens.

5. Under "Basic settings", copy the Redirect URI and paste it into the Duo Admin Panel Sign-In Redirect URLs field, under "Relying Party".

   

6. Return to Moodle. Click the Idp and authentication link. Your identity provider page opens in a new tab.

   Note: Do not close the Moodle "Category: OpenID Connect" page tab. You will come back to it later.

7. Under "Basic settings" in the new tab, click the Identity Provider (IdP) Type drop-down menu and select Other.

8. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Metadata", copy the Client ID and paste it into the Moodle Application ID field.

9. In Moodle, scroll down to the "Authentication" section. Click the Client authentication method drop-down menu and select Secret.

10. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Client Secret and paste it into the Moodle Client Secret field.

11. In Moodle, scroll down to the "Endpoints" section.

12. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Authorization URL and paste it into the Moodle Authorization Endpoint field.

13. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Token URL and paste it into the Moodle Token Endpoint field.

14. In Moodle, scroll down to the "Other parameters" section. Type openid profile email into the Scope field. These values are case-sensitive.

15. Click Save changes.

16. Return to the Moodle "Category: OpenID Connect" page tab. Under "Additional options", scroll down to "Login Flow" and click the Authorization Code Flow (recommended) radio button.

17. Scroll down to the "Data mapping" section. Click the Data mapping (First name) drop-down menu and select Given Name.

18. Click the Data mapping (Last name) drop-down menu and select Surname.

19. Click the Data mapping (Email address) drop-down menu and select Email.

20. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

21. Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Learn more about Moodle SSO at Moodle Documentation.

Using SSO

You can log on to Moodle SSO by navigating to your Moodle SSO page e.g., https://yourtenant/moodle/login. Click OpenID Connect to 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 Moodle to complete the login process.

* Universal Prompt experience shown.

Moodle supports SP-initiated authentication only, meaning that you must start your SSO login from that application's sign-in page. You won't be able to add as an application tile in Duo Central for IdP-initiated logins.

Congratulations! Your Moodle 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 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.