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How to configure SSO

EnterpriseThis feature is available with an Enterprise plan. SSOThis feature is available with the SSO add-on.

Single Sign-On (SSO) on Strapi allows you to configure additional sign-in and sign-up methods for the Strapi admin panel.

Prerequisites
Caution
  • It is currently not possible to associate a unique SSO provider to an email address used for a Strapi account, meaning that the access to a Strapi account cannot be restricted to only one SSO provider. For more information and workarounds to solve this issue, please refer to the dedicated GitHub issue.
  • Deploying the admin and backend on entirely different unrelated domains is not possible at this time when using SSO.

Accessing the configuration​

The SSO configuration lives in the /config/admin file.

The providers' configuration should be written in the auth.providers path of the admin panel as an array of provider configurations:

/config/admin.js

module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  // ...
  auth: {
    providers: [], // The providers' configuration lives there
  },
});

Setting up provider configuration​

A provider's configuration is a JavaScript object built with the following properties:

NameRequiredTypeDescription
uidYesStringThe UID of the strategy. It must match the strategy's name.
displayNameYesStringThe name that will be used on the login page to reference the provider.
createStrategyYesFunctionA factory that will build and return a new passport strategy for your provider. Takes the strapi instance as parameter.
iconNoStringAn image URL. If specified, it will replace the displayName on the login page.
Note

The uid property is the unique identifier of each strategy and is generally found in the strategy's package. If you are not sure of what it refers to, please contact the maintainer of the strategy.

Displaying providers logos​

By default, Strapi security policy does not allow loading images from external URLs, so provider logos will not show up on the login screen of the admin panel unless a security exception is added through middlewares configuration, as in the following example:

/config/middlewares.js
module.exports = [
  // ...
  {
    name: 'strapi::security',
    config: {
      contentSecurityPolicy: {
        useDefaults: true,
        directives: {
          'connect-src': ["'self'", 'https:'],
          'img-src': [
            "'self'",
            'data:',
            'blob:',
            'dl.airtable.com',
            'www.okta.com', // Base URL of the provider's logo
          ],
          'media-src': [
            "'self'",
            'data:',
            'blob:',
            'dl.airtable.com',
            'www.okta.com', // Base URL of the provider's logo
          ],
          upgradeInsecureRequests: null,
        },
      },
    },
  },
  // ...
]

Setting common domain for cookies​

When deploying the admin panel to a different location or on a different subdomain, an additional configuration is required to set the common domain for the cookies. This is required to ensure the cookies are shared across the domains.

/config/admin.js
module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  auth: {
    domain: env("ADMIN_SSO_DOMAIN", ".test.example.com"),
    providers: [
      // ...
    ],
  },
  url: env("ADMIN_URL", "http://admin.test.example.com"),
  // ...
});

The createStrategy Factory​

A passport strategy is usually built by instantiating it using 2 parameters: the configuration object, and the verify function.

Configuration object​

The configuration object depends on the strategy needs, but often asks for a callback URL to be redirected to once the connection has been made on the provider side.

A specific callback URL can be generated for your provider using the getStrategyCallbackURL method. This URL also needs to be written on the provider side in order to allow redirection from it.

The format of the callback URL is the following: /admin/connect/<provider_uid>.

Tip

strapi.admin.services.passport.getStrategyCallbackURL is a Strapi helper you can use to get a callback URL for a specific provider. It takes a provider name as a parameter and returns a URL.

If needed, this is also where you will put your client ID and secret key for your OAuth2 application.

Verify function​

The verify function is used here as a middleware allowing the user to transform and make extra processing on the data returned from the provider API.

This function always takes a done method as last parameter which is used to transfer needed data to the Strapi layer of SSO.

Its signature is the following: void done(error: any, data: object); and it follows the following rules:

  • If error is not set to null, then the data sent is ignored, and the controller will throw an error.
  • If the SSO's auto-registration feature is disabled, then the data object only need to be composed of an email property.
  • If the SSO's auto-registration feature is enabled, then you will need to define (in addition to the email) either a username property or both firstname and lastname within the data object.

Adding a provider​

Adding a new provider means adding a new way for your administrators to log-in.

Strapi uses Passport.js, which enables a large selection of providers. Any valid passport strategy that doesn't need additional custom data should therefore work with Strapi.

Caution

Strategies such as ldapauth don't work out of the box since they require extra data to be sent from the admin panel. If you want to add an LDAP provider to your application, you will need to write a custom strategy. You can also use services such as Okta and Auth0 as bridge services.

Configuring the provider​

To configure a provider, follow the procedure below:

  1. Make sure to import your strategy in your admin configuration file, either from an installed package or a local file.
  2. Add a new item to the auth.providers array in your admin panel configuration that matches the format given above.
  3. Rebuild and restart your application with yarn build && yarn develop or npm run build && npm run develop. The provider should appear on your admin login page.

Provider configuration examples​

The following examples show how SSO is configured for the most common providers:

Performing advanced customization​

Admin panel URL​

If the administration panel lives on a host/port different from the Strapi server, the admin panel URL needs to be updated: Update the url key in the /config/admin file.

Custom logic​

In some scenarios, you will want to write additional logic for your connection workflow such as:

  • restricting connection and registration for a specific domain
  • triggering actions on connection attempt
  • adding analytics

The easiest way to do so is to plug into the verify function of your strategy and write some code.

For example, if you want to allow only people with an official strapi.io email address, you can instantiate your strategy like follows:

/config/admin.js

const strategyInstance = new Strategy(configuration, ({ email, username }, done) => {
  // If the email ends with @strapi.io
  if (email.endsWith('@strapi.io')) {
    // then we continue with the data given by the provider
    return done(null, { email, username });
  }

  // Otherwise, we continue by sending an error to the done function
  done(new Error('Forbidden email address'));
});

Authentication events​

The SSO feature adds a new authentication event: onSSOAutoRegistration.

This event is triggered whenever a user is created using the auto-register feature added by SSO. It contains the created user (event.user), and the provider used to make the registration (event.provider).

/config/admin.js

module.exports = () => ({
    auth: {
      // ...
      events: {
        onConnectionSuccess(e) {},
        onConnectionError(e) {},
        // ...
        onSSOAutoRegistration(e) {
          const { user, provider } = e;

          console.log(
            `A new user (${user.id}) has been automatically registered using ${provider}`
          );
        },
      },
    },
});