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Add two-factor authentication and flexible security policies to Cisco Umbrella Dashboard 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. These instructions add Duo SSO for Umbrella administrator logins to the Umbrella Dashboard. See the Cisco Umbrella (End Users) instructions to add Duo SSO to Umbrella user logins.
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 Cisco Umbrella 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 Cisco Umbrella.
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 Cisco Umbrella. Duo checks the user, device, and network against an application's policy before allowing access to the application.
Configure Single Sign-On
Before configuring Cisco Umbrella 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 Cisco Umbrella application in Duo.
Create the Cisco Umbrella Application in Duo
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Log on to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to Applications.
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Click Protect an Application and locate the entry for Cisco Umbrella 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 Cisco Umbrella. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications in Duo and additional application options. You'll need the information on the Cisco Umbrella page under Downloads later.
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Cisco Umbrella 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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Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button. Leave this page open as you'll need this information 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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We've already updated the Duo Cisco Umbrella application hosted in Duo's service to support the Universal Prompt, so there's no action required on your part to update the application itself. If you created your Cisco Umbrella application before March 2024, you can activate the Universal Prompt experience for users from the Duo Admin Panel. Cisco Umbrella applications created after March 2024 have the Universal Prompt activated by default.
If you created your Cisco Umbrella 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.
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.
The "Universal Prompt" area of the application details page shows that this application is "Ready to activate", 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" here and on the Universal Prompt Update Progress report.
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 Cisco Umbrella SSO
Configure Duo Single Sign-On as a new SSO provider in Cisco Umbrella.
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Log on to Cisco Umbrella as an administrative user and navigate to Admin → Authentication and under "SAML Dashboard User Configuration" click on Enable SAML.
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When asked "Which SAML based SSO Service would you like to use?" click Other and then click Next.
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On the Umbrella Metadata page click Next.
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Click Download XML next to "XML file" under Downloads on your Cisco Umbrella application's details page in the Duo Admin Panel to download the Duo Single Sign-On XML metadata file. On the Cisco Umbrella Upload and Verify Other Metadata page under "XML File Upload" click Or select a file... and select the XML metadata file.
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Click Test Configuration. A pop-up will appear and redirect to the Duo Single Sign-On login page. Enter your primary directory logon information and approve Duo two-factor authentication. You will see a "Success" message. Close this window, return to the configuration page, and click Next
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You will be asked to accept terms and conditions and click Save and Notify Users. This will enable SSO and send an email to your employees notifying them of the change.
Learn more about Cisco Umbrella SSO at the Cisco Umbrella Support site.
Log in with SSO
Navigate to the Cisco Umbrella login page and click the Single sign on link. Enter your email address and click Sign In. This redirects you 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 Cisco Umbrella to complete the login process.
* Universal Prompt experience shown.
You can also log into Cisco Umbrella using Duo Central, our cloud-hosted portal which allows users to access all of their applications in one spot. Link to Cisco Umbrella 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 Cisco Umbrella.
Congratulations! Your Cisco Umbrella 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 Cisco Umbrella 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.