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Add two-factor authentication and flexible security policies to Zero Networks SAML 2.0 logins with Duo Single Sign-On. Our cloud-hosted SSO identity provider offers inline 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 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.
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 Zero Networks 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 Zero Networks.
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 Zero Networks. Duo checks the user, device, and network against an application's policy before allowing access to the application.
Configure Single Sign-On
Before configuring Zero Networks 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 Zero Networks application in Duo.
Create the Zero Networks Application in Duo
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Log in to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to Applications → Protect an Application.
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Locate the entry for Zero Networks 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 Zero Networks. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications with Duo and additional application options. You'll need the information on the Zero Networks page under Metadata later.
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No users can log in to new applications until you grant access. Update the User access setting to grant access to this application to users in selected Duo groups, or to all users. Learn more about user access to applications. If you do not change this setting now, be sure to update it so that your test user has access before you test your setup.
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Zero Networks 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.
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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.
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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 |
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The Duo Zero Networks 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 Zero Networks 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.
Enable Zero Networks for SSO
Sync Users with an Entity Repository
You need to sync users with an entity repository in Zero Networks before you can configure SSO. To sync users with an entity repository, do the following:
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Log into your Zero Networks account as an administrator.
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In the bottom-left corner of the page, click Settings. The "Settings" page opens.
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In the sidebar menu, scroll down to "Entity repositories" and click the applicable repository.
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Follow the on-screen instructions for the selected repository.
Configure SSO
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In the sidebar menu, scroll down to "Integrations" and click Identity providers.
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In the "Identity providers" section, click Duo to expand the configuration menu.
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Copy the Entity ID and paste it into the Duo Admin Panel Entity ID field, under "Service Provider".
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Return to Zero Networks. Copy the Assertion Consumer Service (ACS) URL and paste it into the Duo Admin Panel Assertion Consumer Service (ACS) URL field.
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In the Duo Admin Panel under "Metadata", copy the Single Sign-On URL and paste it into the Zero Networks Single Sign-On URL field.
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Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Copy the Single Log-Out URL and paste it into the Zero Networks Single Log-Out URL field.
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Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Under "Downloads", click Copy certificate and paste the certificate text into the Zero Networks Certificate field.
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In Zero Networks, click Add.
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Return to the Duo Admin Panel. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save.
Learn more about Zero Networks SSO at Zero TechDocs. You need to be logged into your Zero Networks account to access Zero TechDocs.
Using SSO
You can log on to Zero Networks by navigating to your Zero Networks SSO page e.g., https://your-hostname.zeronetworks.com/#/login. Enter your email address and then click the Duo icon 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 Zero Networks to complete the login process.

* Universal Prompt experience shown.
You can also log into Zero Networks using Duo Central, our cloud-hosted portal which allows users to access all of their applications in one spot. Link to Zero Networks 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 Zero Networks.
Congratulations! Your Zero Networks 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.
Grant Access to Users
If you did not already grant user access to the Duo users you want to use this application be sure to do that before inviting or requiring them to log in with Duo.
Enforce SSO
You can require that all users sign into Zero Networks using Duo Single Sign-On.
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Log into your Zero Networks account as an administrator.
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In the bottom-left corner of the page, click Settings. The "Settings" page opens.
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In the sidebar menu, scroll down to "Integrations" and click Identity providers.
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In the "Identity providers" section, click Duo to expand the configuration menu.
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Click Edit.
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Click the Use as default instead of built-in email verification checkbox.
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Click Save.
Enable Remembered Devices
To minimize additional Duo two-factor prompts when switching between Zero Networks 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.