Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO in a test environment.

  • CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform supports IDP initiated SSO

Note

Identifier of this application is a fixed string value so only one instance can be configured in one tenant.

To configure the integration of CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
  3. In the Add from the gallery section, type CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform in the search box.
  4. Select CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Alternatively, you can also use the Enterprise App Configuration Wizard. In this wizard, you can add an application to your tenant, add users/groups to the app, assign roles, as well as walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform > Single sign-on.

  3. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  4. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, enter the values for the following fields:

    In the Reply URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://app.cloudknox.io/saml/<ID>

    Note

    The Reply URL value is not real. Update the value with the actual Reply URL. Contact CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform Client support team to get the value. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform application expects the SAML assertions in a specific format, which requires you to add custom attribute mappings to your SAML token attributes configuration. The following screenshot shows the list of default attributes.

    image

  7. In addition to above, CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform application expects few more attributes to be passed back in SAML response, which are shown below. These attributes are also pre populated but you can review them as per your requirements.

    Name Source attribute
    First_Name user.givenname
    Groups user.groups
    Last_Name user.surname
    Email_Address user.mail
  8. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, find Federation Metadata XML and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  9. On the Set up CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform.
  3. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform SSO

To configure single sign-on on CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform side, you need to send the downloaded Federation Metadata XML and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform. Work with CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform support team to add the users in the CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform platform. Users must be created and activated before you use single sign-on.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

  • Click on Test this application, and you should be automatically signed in to the CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform for which you set up the SSO

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform tile in the My Apps, you should be automatically signed in to the CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure CloudKnox Permissions Management Platform you can enforce session control, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session control extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.