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oxd OpenID Connect Single Sign-On (SSO) Plugin for WordPress#

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The oxd OpenID Connect single sign-on (SSO) plugin for WordPress enables you to use a standard OpenID Connect Provider (OP), like Google or the Gluu Server, to authenticate and enroll users for a WordPress site.

WordPress Demo Video#

You can watch a video demo of the WordPress plugin installation and configuration here. In the video we use a Gluu Server as the OP.

Requirements#

In order to use this WordPress plugin you will need a WordPress site, a standard OP (like Google or a Gluu Server), and an active oxd server. Some additional notes:

  • This plugin is compatible with WordPress versions: 2.9 - 4.8

  • If you want to stand up your own OP server, you can deploy the free open source Gluu Server. Otherwise we recommend using Google

  • You will need a valid license to start the oxd server. You can get a license and a $50 credit by signing up on the oxd website

Plugin Installation#

Download the Plugin#

You can either download the plugin from the Github source or the WordPress marketplace.

Upload the Plugin#

Navigate to the WP-admin portal of your WordPress site and open the plugin page, e.g. https://{site-base-url}/wp-admin/plugin-install.php?tab=upload. Upload the plugin and click the install now button.

Activate the Plugin#

Navigate to the plugins page, e.g. https://{site-base-url}/wp-admin/plugins.php, find OpenID Connect Single Sign-On (SSO) Plugin By Gluu and click the Activate button.

Plugin Configuration#

In your WordPress admin dashboard you should now see the OpenID Connect tab in the left hand menu. Click the link to navigate to the General configuration page.

General#

Server Settings#

In the server settings section of the plugin configuration page, you will need to enter information about your OP, your oxd server, and where you want to redirect users after logout.

A short description of each field follows:

  1. URI of the OpenID Provider: Insert the URI of the OpenID Connect Provider here. If you are using Google as your OP, this will simply be https://accounts.google.com. If you are using another OP it will be something like https://idp.example.com

  2. Custom URI after logout: Provide a URL for a landing page to redirect users after logout of the WP site, for instance https://example.com/thank-you. If you don't have a preferred logout page, we recommend simply entering your website homepage URL. If you leave this field blank the user will see the default logout page presented by WordPress

  3. oxd port: Enter the oxd-server port, which you can find in your oxd-server/conf/oxd-conf.json file

  4. Click Register to continue

Note

If you get a blank page after clicking Register, check the Apache error log file in /var/log/apache2/. Most likely the error is about utf8_encode() function. If so, install the php{php_version}.0.xml plugin from the command line and restart Apache. For example if you are using php7, the command will be:$ sudo apt-get install php7.0.xml

If your OpenID Provider supports dynamic registration, no additional steps are required.

If your OpenID Connect Provider does not support dynamic registration (like Google), after clicking register two additional fields will be exposed where you need to enter your client_id and client_secret. Both values need to be obtained from the OP. To generate your client_id and client_secret use the redirect URI: https://{site-base-url}/index.php?option=oxdOpenId.

Note

If you are using a Gluu server as your OpenID Provider, you can make sure everything is configured properly by logging into to your Gluu Server, navigate to the OpenID Connect > Clients page. Search for your oxd id. If it's present in the OP, everything worked.

Enrollment and Access Management#

In the enrollment and access management section of the plugin configuration page you can decide, (1), how new user registrations will be handled, and, (2), what role new users will receive upon registration.

  • You have three options for new user registrations:

  • Automatically register any user with an account in the OpenID Provider: By setting registration to automatic, any user with an account in the OP will be able to dynamically register for an account on your WordPress site

  • Only register and allow ongoing access to users with one or more of the following roles in the OP: Using this option you can limit registration to users that have a specified role in the OP, for instance wordpress. Each time the user authenticates they will need to have this scope present in order to be approved for access (i.e. if you remove this scope from the users profile in the OP, the user would be denied access). This is not configurable in all OPs. It is configurable if you are using a Gluu Server. Follow the instructions below to limit access based on an OP role

  • Disable automatic registration: If you choose to disable automatic registration, you will need to manually add a user in WordPress for each person that needs access. Make sure that when you add the user in WordPress, you use the same email they have registered in the OP

  • New User Default Role: Use this field to specify which role new users are assigned upon registration. If you have automatic registration set to disabled, you will have the opportunity to specify the users role during manual account creation

Role Based Enrollment#

In order to implement role based enrollment, you will need to make changes in both the plugin and the Gluu Server.

Perform the following in the Plugin:

  1. In the Enrollment and Access Management section, choose the option: Only register and allow ongoing...
  2. Add a name for the role want to use to enforce access (e.g. wordpress or website)
  3. Save the configuration
  4. Navigate to the OpenID Connect Configuration tab
  5. In the User Scopes section, check the box for permission
  6. Save your settings

Perform the following in your Gluu Server:

  1. Navigate to your Gluu Server admin GUI ("oxTrust")
  2. Click the Users tab in the left hand navigation menu
  3. Select Manage People
  4. Find the person(s) who should have access
  5. Click their user entry
  6. Add the User Permission attribute to the person and specify the same value as in the plugin. For instance, if in the plugin you specify that enrollment should be limited to users with role = wordpress, then you should also have User Permission = wordpress in the user entry. See a screenshot example
  7. Update the user record

Now only users with the role wordpress in the Gluu Server will be able to gain access to your WordPress site.

OpenID Connect Configuration#

Navigate to the OpenID Connect Configuration tab to set your preferences for scopes and authentication.

User Scopes#

Scopes are groups of user attributes that are sent from the OP to the application during login and enrollment. By default, the requested scopes are profile, email, and openid. If you want more information about the users, you can request additional scopes.

To view your OP's available scopes, open a web browser and navigate to https://<hostname>/.well-known/openid-configuration. For example, if you are using Google the the OP, you can see the available scopes in the Google's OP configuration.

If you are using a Gluu Server as your OpenID Provider, you can view available scopes by navigating to the OpenID Configuration page as described above, or within oxTrust by navigating to OpenID Connect > Scopes.

Authentication#

In the authentication settings, you have two options:

  • Bypass the local WordPress login page and send users straight to the OP for authentication: If you would like to bypass WordPress's default login page and send users straight to the OP, check this box (recommended). When this option is left unchecked, users will see the following screen when trying to login:

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  • Select ACR: acr is an OpenID Connect specific value that enables applications to request a specific type of authentication from the OP, e.g. SMS based two factor authentication, or FIDO U2F tokens. If you are using Google as your OP, you will have to accept their default authentication mechanism. If you are using a Gluu Sever, you will be able to request any supported form of authentication. To view the OP's supported ACR values, navigate to your OpenID Provider configuration page, https://<hostname>/.well-known/openid-configuration and find acr_values. In the Select acr field you can choose your preferred authentication mechanism. If Select acr is none, users will be sent to pass the OP's default authentication mechanism.

OP Configuration#

Gluu Server Configuration#

If you are using a Gluu Server as your OP, you will need to configure Gluu to release the email claim. You can do so by following the below steps:

  1. Log into your Gluu Server dashboard ("oxTrust") and navigate to OpenID Connect > Scopes

  2. Find the email scope and click on it

  3. Set the Allow for dynamic registration field to True

  4. If Email is not already added to the Claims field, click the Add Claim, search for email, and add it

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  1. Now navigate to Configuration > Attributes and make sure that the Email attribute is set to Active. If it is not, click on the email attribute and scroll down to the Status field where you can change the value to Active. Click update

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Google Configuration#

To use Google as the OP, you will need to obtain a Client ID and Secret at Google. To generate your client_id and client_secret at Google use the redirect uri: https://<hostname>/index.php?option=oxdOpenId.

Support#

Please report technical issues and suspected bugs on our support page. If you do not already have an account on Gluu Support, you can login and create an account using the same credentials you created when you registered for your oxd license.