Table Of Contents
Quick Overview
General Configuration
Verify The SAML Domain
Enabling SAML SSO
Disabling SAML SSO
Okta
Create An Okta Account (If Needed)
Create A New Okta App
Configure The SAML Integration In Okta
Configure The Attributes In Okta
Rolemapping Mailgun Roles In Okta
OneLogin
Setting Up SAML SSO Using OneLogin
Configuring Attributes In OneLogin & Rolemapping
Got Questions?
Quick Overview
Note: SAML SSO is available on Scale and above plans. See our plan comparison here.
Using the SAML 2.0 protocol, Mailgun allows you to integrate with your Identity Provider to authenticate users via single sign-on, also known as SSO. Theoretically, as long as your current Identity Provider supports the SAML 2.0 protocol (Okta, Auth0, Onelogin, Azure AD, etc), then you should be able to use your provider with Mailgun.
Mailgun supports just-in-time (JiT) provisioning, so that when a user logs into Mailgun using our SSO integration, that user automatically becomes a user under your Mailgun account.
In short, this setup process requires the exchange of information between the two systems:
-
Provide Mailgun With The Information Below From Your Identity Provider
- IdP Entity ID (also known as Identity Provider Issuer)
- Single Sign-on URL
- X509 Certificate
-
Provide Your Identity Provider With The Information Below From Mailgun
- Entity ID
- Assertion Consumer Service URL
- Single Logout Service URL
General Configuration
Verify The SAML Domain
In order to set up SAML, you will need to verify that you own your corporate domain (the domain being used in the SAML configuration to log in). There are two methods for verifying your corporate domain on the Mailgun platform:
- Verified sending domain - if you plan on or are using your corporate domain for sending on Mailgun, you can use our current method of adding SPF and DKIM records to verify the domain as a sending domain on Mailgun. This domain must match the FQDN in your corporate email address used to authenticate. If the domain is already a verified sending domain on your account, no further action is required.
-
TXT record - Mailgun can generate a unique TXT record for you to add to your corporate domain’s DNS that will allow us to verify you own this domain. In order to use this method:
- Navigate to the SAML Configuration settings page (see the Enabling SAML SSO section below)
- Enter your corporate domain in the Domain Name field under the Domain TXT Record Generation section
- Click the Generate button
- Finally, copy the TXT record from the modal, and add it to your DNS hosting provider for your corporate domain.
Enabling SAML SSO
Note: Only Admin users have access to enable/disable SAML on an account.
As for enabling SAML SSO, we'll show you how to do this below:
- First, log in to the Mailgun Control Panel (if you have not already done so).
- Then, at the top-right corner of the page, click the Profile drop-down menu to expand its list of options.
- Next, click the Account option. Alternatively, you can use this direct link.
- On the resulting page and in the Authentication section, click the Setup button for the SAML Auth setting.
Once there, you will find the relevant SAML Provider (SP) Details [i.e. Mailgun details that you provide to your Identity Provider], as well as the Identity Provider (IdP) Details [i.e. Identity Provider details that you provide to Mailgun]. This article goes over the specific information and additional steps needed in the relevant Identity Provider sections (i.e. Okta, OneLogin, etc.)
Disabling SAML SSO
Note: Only Admin users have access to enable/disable SAML on an account.
As for disabling SAML SSO, we'll show you how to do this below:
- First, log in to the Mailgun Control Panel (if you have not already done so).
- Then, at the top-right corner of the page, click the Profile drop-down menu to expand its list of options.
- Next, click the Account option. Alternatively, you can use this direct link.
- On the resulting page and in the Authentication section, and by the SAML Auth setting, click the Disable button.
Of Special Note: Any users that were created prior to activating SAML will be able to log in at https://login.mailgun.com/ with their prior username and password combination for their Mailgun account. Any users that were created using JiT via SAML will need to initiate a password reset at https://login.mailgun.com/recovery/new.
Okta
Create An Okta Account (If Needed)
First, you’ll need an Okta account. If you already have one, great! If not, you can register at https://developer.okta.com and follow the instructions to get a free developer account.
Create A New Okta App
Once you have an Okta account, navigate to Applications on the left-hand navigation pane. On the resulting page, click the Create App integration button.
When the modal pops up, select SAML 2.0 as the sign-on method. The next modal provides the opportunity to give your app a descriptive name and a logo, if you wish, before continuing the process by clicking the Next button.
Configure The SAML Integration In Okta
Next, you'll be presented with various fields. We'll explain what data you should assign to each field:
-
- Single sign on URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL in your Mailgun Dashboard)
- Audience URI (Entity ID in your Mailgun Dashboard)
- Leave Default RelayState blank
- Name ID format should be set to EmailAddress
- Application username should be set to email
- Update application username on should be set to Create and update
Configure The Attributes In Okta
Note: we ask you to provide Attribute Statements for FirstAndLastName since we will otherwise provide a generic name.
There are three attributes (one of which will be a group attribute) in total that will need to be added. We'll explain what data you should assign to each field:
- Attribute Statement 1
- Name: FirstAndLastName
- Name format: leave as Unspecified
- Value: user.firstName + " " + user.lastName
- Note: the special characters and specific spacing in the value above are intentional
- Attribute Statement 2
- Name: email
- Name format: leave as Unspecified
- Value: user.email
- Group Attribute Statement 1
- Name: UserGroup
- Name format: leave as Unspecified
- Filter:
- Drop-down: choose Matches regex in the dropdown
- Textbox: .*
Rolemapping Mailgun Roles In Okta
Okta organizes users into groups. Typically these groups will organize users by the role they hold within the organization (e.g. Support, Billing, etc). These groups should be mapped to roles within Mailgun as well. The following is a simple example of configuring rolemapping in Mailgun. This configuration will pass the Okta group names in the SAML assertion inside the UserGroup attribute, ultimately allowing Mailgun's rolemapping to decide which role should be assigned to a given user.
The below screenshot is from Mailgun on the SAML configuration page. In this example, whenever an Okta user has the IdP group attribute (UserGroup) assigned to "Developers", Mailgun in turn will assign the user a "developer" role. A similar example could be an Okta UserGroup of "Supervisors" mapping to the Mailgun role of "admin".
Important things to keep in mind:
- A user must map to a particular role, or login will not be rejected with an appropriate error message displayed.
- Not every Mailgun role needs to have a mapping. For example, if there is no need for you to use the “Analyst” role in Mailgun, leave that mapping blank in the Mailgun Control Panel.
- Mailgun’s rolemapping feature only supports case-sensitive string matches. Regex’s are not supported at this time.
- Account owners can never perform an SP-initiated login by entering their email address at login.mailgun.com. This is to prevent the account owner from locking themselves out. The account owner can perform an IdP-initiated login, however.
- It is entirely possible that a user can be in two groups in Okta or simply map to multiple roles in Mailgun. If this happens, Mailgun will observe the higher-priority role of that user. For example, if a user maps to both a “developer” and “admin”, they will be assigned “admin” in Mailgun since it holds higher priority. The roles are given the following priority in descending order:
- admin
- developer
- support
- billing
- analyst
OneLogin
Setting Up SAML SSO Using OneLogin
Login to your OneLogin Administration page; on the navbar head over to "Applications"
In Applications, create your own application by selecting "Add App"
You'll be presented with categories on the subsequent page. Head to the search bar and search for "SAML". From the results select "SAML Custom Connector (Advanced)"
Give the connector app some details such as a display name, and a description for other admins in your organization to see such as configuration recommendations or processes. You can also choose if you would like to make the app visible to users' OneLogin dashboards/profiles. You can customize the logo using our assets over on our GitHub Repo
When you save, you'll land on a similar page with additional options to select from, as seen below.
For the next section load your Mailgun SAML details from your dashboard if you haven't had them in another tab/window already. You'll be copying over the Mailgun Service Provider details, note the copy buttons to make sure there are no character format issues or leading/trailing spaces.
Copy these over to OneLogin by going to "Configuration"
- Entity ID will go into the Audience (EntityID) field.
- Assertion Consumer Service URL (ACS URL) will go into the ACS (Consumer) URL Validator field and the ACS (Consumer) URL field.
- Single Logout Service will go into the Single Logout URL field
- NOTE: Mailgun requires BOTH the assertion and response to be signed. You need to change SAML signature element to BOTH.
Now you will need to provide information from OneLogin to Mailgun. Head over to to "SSO" section. Note the copy buttons to make things easier.
To copy the X.509 Certificate you will need to click "View Details" and be taken to this page, again note the copy button. Change nothing else, DO NOT HIT DELETE simply navigate back to your app configuration.
- Issuer URL will go in the IdP Entity ID field
- SAML 2.0 Endpoint (HTTP) will go in the Single Sign-On URL field
- SLO Endpoint (HTTP) will go in the Single Logout Service URL field
- X.509 certificate will go into the X.509 certificate field
Hit "Update" you should receive toast notifications informing you each field has been updated successfully.
Configuring Attributes In OneLogin & Rolemapping
From here you'll need to configure parameters for either platform to be able to target values so roles are assigned as you desire. You'll need to configure an Attribute Name for each role you would like to set up, depending on how your organization handles their Identity Access Management (IAM) these can be the same or different. For more about how to best implement your IAM for your organization connect with your OneLogin support team or engineer.
For the below example we will be configuring against a OneLogin users "Title" as the identifier in OneLogin, you may find your organization utilizes groups, departments, teams, etc.
To start we created "MG.Role" as the Attribute Name and the targeted Value for each to correspond to either.
In OneLogin go to "Parameters" you will be creating a custom parameter connector field that matches the Attribute Name over in Mailgun that you chose. For this example, "MG.Role", and ensure "Include SAML Assertion" is toggled on.
The page will update and you will be allowed to choose your target OneLogin Value to apply against.
Notes:
- A user must map to a particular role or login will not be allowed and an appropriate error message will be displayed.
- Not every Mailgun role needs to have a mapping. For example, if there is no need to have an “Analyst” role log in to Mailgun, just leave that mapping blank in the Mailgun UI.
- Mailgun’s role mapping feature only supports case-sensitive string matches. Regex’s are not supported at this time.
- Account owners can never perform an SP-initiated login flow by entering their email address at login.mailgun.com. This is to prevent the account owner from locking themselves out. The account owner can perform an IdP-initiated login, however.
Save All your changes.
Finally, you will need to ensure your desired users are assigned the application you just finished creating. In this example, as I only have a single user, I did so directly in the user details section. You may find your organization's IAM setup with OneLogin may utilize Groups, Departments, Roles, for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) assignment to apply applications at scale. To configure and assist with ensuring users are assigned appropriately work with OneLogin support.
To test things out, it's recommended you create a test user in OneLogin, setup as desired there, and head over to our Login Page IN A NEW INCOGNITO WINDOW. When you sign in as the new user you should be redirected to authenticate the user with OneLogin.
To confirm back in your cached browser session (Aka the non-incognito session) navigate to your account security page. Here, if completed successfully, you will see your new user automatically created with a "SAML Auth" flag.
Done!
Got Questions?
Mailgun by Sinch has answers! If you have any concerns or questions, please send us a Support ticket using the Support page within your Mailgun Control Panel. Our Support Team will be happy to assist!