1. Home
    2. Prisma
    3. Prisma Cloud
    4. Prisma Cloud Compute Edition Administrator’s Guide
    5. Access control
    6. Integrate with SAML
    End-of-Life (EoL)

    Integrate with SAML

    Prisma Cloud supports user authentication using SAML. Many organizations use SAML to authenticate users for web services.
    When SAML support is enabled, administrators can log into Console with their federated credentials. They do not need to first set up a separate account in Prisma Cloud. With SAML users and groups, admins can create granular access control rules that allow or deny specific actions against specific resources for specific users and groups.
    For example, an administrator could create an access control rule called “Production read-only” that limits the SAML group “Test Team” to run just the docker ps, docker stats, and docker inspect commands on any host named prod*. When this rule is activated, users that are part of the Test Team group can only run these Docker client commands on production hosts. All other commands are blocked.
    Prisma Cloud’s internal processing for SAML access control rules is as follows:
    1. A user accesses Console.
    2. She is prompted to submit her credentials.
    3. The SAML authentication flow begins.
    4. Prisma Cloud gets a response from the SAML Identity provider that:
      1. Validates the user’s credentials.
      2. Lists her group memberships.
    5. The user is directed to the Console access page (/configure/access/certificates), and she is prompted to download her certificate. Group memberships for the user are embedded in the certificate.
    6. Using her certificate, the user runs a Docker client command on a host protected by Defender.
    7. Defender uses the certificate to determine the user’s identity and group memberships. Defender allows or blocks the command, depending on the access policies specified in Console.
    Note that Defender does not talk to the SAML IdP. Instead, it relies on the user certificate generated from the initial SAML authentication flow, when the user first tries to log into Console (see Step 1-5 above). The validity period for the certificate is controlled by the SAML IdP, which embeds the login expiration into the response.
    When Prisma Cloud is integrated with SAML, the logout button in Console works differently than expected. When you log out, Prisma Cloud unregisters your token, but it does not log you out from your SAML provider (because users want to stay signed into their other apps). Instead, the token is removed and you are redirected back to the login page, which automatically signs you back into Console (assuming that you are still logged into the SAML provider). Logging out from Console, therefore, essentially refreshes your account information and group memberships.

    Integrating with SAML

    Integrating Prisma Cloud with SAML consists of setting up your IdP, then configuring Prisma Cloud to integrate with it. In this article, we’ll use Okta as the IdP.

    Setting up Prisma Cloud in Okta

    To set up Prisma Cloud in Okta:
    1. Log into the Okta admin dashboard.
    2. On the right, click
      Add Applications
      .
    3. On the left, click
      Create new app
      .
    4. Select
      SAML 2.0
      , and then click
      Create
      .
    5. In the
      App name
       field, enter
      Prisma Cloud Console
      , then click
      Next
      .
    6. In the SAML Settings dialog:
      1. In the
        Single Sign On URL
         field, enter
        https://<CONSOLE_ADDR>:8083/api/v1/authenticate
        .
        Note that if you’ve changed the default port you use for the HTTPS listener, you’d need to adjust the URL here accordingly. Additionally, this URL must be visible from the Okta environment, so if you’re in a virtual network or behind a load balancer, it must be configured to forward traffic to this port and it’s address is what should be used here.
      2. Select
        Use this for Recipient URL and Destination URL
        .
      3. In the field for
        Audience Restriction
        , enter
        twistlock
         (all lowercase).
      4. Expand
        Advanced Settings
        .
      5. Verify that
        Response
         is set to
        Signed
        .
      6. Verify that
        Assertion Signature
         is set to
        Signed
        .
    7. (Optional) Add a group.
      Setting up groups is optional. If you set up group attribute statements, then permission to access Prisma Cloud is assessed at the group level. If you don’t set up group attribute statements, them permission to access Prisma Cloud is assessed at the user level.
      1. Scroll down to the
        GROUP ATTRIBUTE STATEMENTS
         section.
      2. In the
        Name
         field, enter
        groups
        .
      3. In filter drop down menu, select
        Regex
         and enter a regular expression that captures all the groups defined in Okta that you want to use for access control rules in Prisma Cloud.
        In this example, the regular expression
        .*(t|T)wistlock.*
         is used to include all groups prepended with either Prisma Cloud or twistlock. You should enter your own desired group name here. If you have just one group, such as YourGroup, then just enter
        YourGroup
        . Regular expressions are not required. If you have multiple groups, you can use a regular expressions, such as
        (group1|group2|group3)
        .
    8. Click
      Next
      , and then click
      Finish
      .
      You are directed to a summary page for your new app.
    9. Click on the
      People
       tab, and add users to the Prisma Cloud app.
    10. Click on the
      Groups
       tab, and add groups to the Prisma Cloud app.
    11. Click on the
      Sign On
       tab and click
      View setup instructions
      .
      The following values are used to configure Prisma Cloud Console, so copy them and set them aside.
      • Identity Provider Single Sign-On URL
      • Identity Provider Issuer
      • X.509 Certificate

    Configuring Console

    To configure Console:
    1. Open Console, and login as admin.
    2. Go to
      Manage > Authentication > SAML
      .
    3. Set
      Enabled
       to
      ON
      .
    4. Copy the following values from Okta and paste them into their corresponding fields in Console:
      • Identity Provider Single Sign-On URL
      • Identity Provider Issuer
      • X.509 Certificate
    5. Click
      Save
      .
      Do NOT log out of Console after this step without creating access rules (following the procedure listed below). If you log out now you will be redirected to authenticate via SAML without having a group yet, causing the login to fail.

    Granting access by group

    Grant access to Prisma Cloud Console by group. Each group must be assigned a role. You can optionally use these groups to define RBAC rules for controlling who can run which Docker Engine commands in your environment.
    1. Open Console.
    2. Define a SAML group.
      1. Go to
        Manage > Authentication > Groups
        .
      2. Click
        Add group
        .
      3. In the
        Name
         field, enter a group name.
        The group name must exactly match the group name in the SAML IdP. Console does not verify if that the value entered matches a group name in the SAML IdP.
      4. Select the
        SAML group
         checkbox.
      5. Select a role.
      6. Select a project(s) - Optional.
      7. Click
        Save
        .

    Granting access by user

    Grant access to Prisma Cloud Console by user. Each user must be assigned a role. You can optionally use these user to define RBAC rules for controlling who can run which Docker Engine commands in your environment.
    1. Open Console.
    2. Define a SAML user.
      1. Go to
        Manage > Authentication > Users
        .
      2. Click
        Add user
        .
      3. In the
        Username
         field, enter a user name.
        The username must exactly match the username in the SAML IdP. Console does not verify if that the value entered matches a user name in the SAML IdP.
      4. Select
        SAML
         as the Auth method
      5. Select a role.
      6. (Optional) Select a project(s).
      7. Click
        Save
        .

    Troubleshooting

    If you misconfigure the SAML integration parameters in Prisma Cloud Console, you might get locked out from your Prisma Cloud admin account. When you try to log into Console to fix the configuration, you might be redirected to the Okta login page.
    Console has a back door that lets you log in with Prisma Cloud users, not SAML users. An example of a Prisma Cloud user is the default admin account created when you first install Prisma Cloud.
    To log in with a Prisma Cloud user account when SAML is enabled, add the URL fragment /#!/login to Console’s address. For example:
    https://<CONSOLE_IPADDR | HOSTNAME>:8083/#!/login
    Regular SAML users should log in with the address to Console’s front page:
    https://<CONSOLE_IPADDR | HOSTNAME>:8083

    Recommended For You

    Recommended Videos

    Recommended videos not found.

    © 2023 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

    Techdocs Logo