Daniel Bachhuber

Chris Reynolds

Pantheon Systems

John Spellman

Josh Koenig

Anais Pantheor

SAML authentication for WordPress, using the bundled OneLogin SAML library or optionally installed <a href="https://simplesamlphp.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">SimpleSAMLphp</a>. OneLogin provides a SAML authentication bridge; SimpleSAMLphp provides SAML plus a variety of other authentication mechanisms. This plugin acts as a bridge between WordPress and the authentication library.
If your organization uses Google Apps, <a href="https://pantheon.io/docs/wordpress-google-sso/" rel="nofollow ugc">integrating Google Apps with WP SAML Auth</a> takes just a few steps.
The standard user flow looks like this:
<ul>
<li>User can log in via SAML using a button added to the standard WordPress login view.</li>
<li>When the button is clicked, the user is handed off to the authentication library. With OneLogin, the user is redirected to the SAML identity provider. With SimpleSAMLphp, the user is redirected to the SimpleSAMLphp install.</li>
<li>Once the user is authenticated with the identity provider, they’re redirected back to WordPress and signed in to their account. A new WordPress user will be created if none exists (although this behavior can be disabled).</li>
<li>When the user logs out of WordPress, they are also logged out of the identity provider.</li>
</ul>
A set of configuration options allow you to change the plugin’s default behavior. For instance, <code>permit_wp_login=>false</code> will force all authentication to go through the SAML identity provider, bypassing <code>wp-login.php</code>. Similiarly, <code>auto_provision=>false</code> will disable automatic creation of new WordPress users.
See installation instructions for full configuration details.
<h3>Installing SimpleSAMLphp</h3>
The plugin supports both SimpleSAMLphp v1.x and v2.x. The autoloader is automatically detected:
SimpleSAMLphp v2.x uses <code>vendor/autoload.php</code> 
SimpleSAMLphp v1.x uses <code>lib/_autoload.php</code>
<h4>Default Search Paths</h4>
The plugin automatically searches for SimpleSAMLphp in these locations: 
* <code>ABSPATH . 'simplesaml'</code> 
* <code>ABSPATH . 'private/simplesamlphp'</code> 
* <code>ABSPATH . 'simplesamlphp'</code> 
* <code>ABSPATH . 'vendor/simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp'</code> (Composer installation) 
* <code>plugin_dir_path . 'simplesamlphp'</code>
For each path, the plugin checks for both <code>vendor/autoload.php</code> (v2.x) and <code>lib/_autoload.php</code> (v1.x).
This means Composer installations work automatically! If you run <code>composer require simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp</code> in your site root, the plugin will find it without any additional configuration.
<h4>Composer Installation (Advanced)</h4>
If you install SimpleSAMLphp via Composer to a custom location (not the standard <code>vendor/simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp</code>), you can specify the autoloader path:
<pre><code>add_filter( 'wp_saml_auth_option', function( $value, $option_name ) {
 if ( 'simplesamlphp_autoload' === $option_name ) {
 // Point to your custom Composer vendor autoloader
 return '/custom/path/vendor/autoload.php';
 }
 return $value;
}, 10, 2 );
</code></pre>
<h4>Custom Installation Paths</h4>
If SimpleSAMLphp is installed in a non-default location, you can set custom search paths with the <code>wp_saml_auth_simplesamlphp_path_array</code> filter:
<pre><code>add_filter( 'wp_saml_auth_simplesamlphp_path_array', function( $simplesamlphp_path_array ) {
 // Override default paths with custom paths
 return [ '/custom/path/to/simplesamlphp' ];
} );
</code></pre>
Or define an explicit autoloader path with the <code>wp_saml_auth_ssp_autoloader</code> filter:
<pre><code>add_filter( 'wp_saml_auth_ssp_autoloader', function( $ssp_autoloader ) {
 return ABSPATH . 'path/to/simplesamlphp/vendor/autoload.php';
} );<h3>WP-CLI Commands</h3>
</code></pre>
This plugin implements a variety of <a href="https://wp-cli.org" rel="nofollow ugc">WP-CLI</a> commands. All commands are grouped into the <code>wp saml-auth</code> namespace.
<pre><code>$ wp help saml-auth

NAME

 wp saml-auth

DESCRIPTION

 Configure and manage the WP SAML Auth plugin.

SYNOPSIS

 wp saml-auth <command>

SUBCOMMANDS

 scaffold-config Scaffold a configuration filter to customize WP SAML Auth usage.
</code></pre>
Use <code>wp help saml-auth <command></code> to learn more about each command.
Note: The <code>scaffold-config</code> command generates a configuration function with default values. The <code>simplesamlphp_autoload</code> option is not included in the scaffolded output because the plugin auto-detects SimpleSAMLphp installations. Only add this option manually if SimpleSAMLphp is in a non-standard location.
<h3>Contributing</h3>
See <a href="https://github.com/pantheon-systems/wp-saml-auth/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md" rel="nofollow ugc">CONTRIBUTING.md</a> for information on contributing.

WP SAML Auth

Datawiza

The Proxy Auth Plugin helps developers/DevOps/admins easily implement authentication and authorization for WordPress by using a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON_Web_Token" rel="nofollow ugc">JWT (JSON Web Token)</a> provided by a reverse proxy.
This could be employed to achieve SSO (OAUTH/OIDC and SAML) to a Cloud Identity Provider (e.g., Azure Active Directory, Okta, Auth0) by using an Identity-Aware Proxy, e.g., <a href="https://www.datawiza.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Datawiza Access Broker</a> and <a href="https://cloud.google.com/iap" rel="nofollow ugc">Google IAP</a>.
Note that the plugin requires a reverse proxy sitting in front of the WordPress site. The reverse proxy performs authentication, and passes the user name and role in a JWT to the plugin via a HTTP header called <code>DW-TOKEN</code>.
By using <a href="https://www.datawiza.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Datawiza Access Broker</a>, you get a <a href="https://docs.datawiza.com/step-by-step/step1.html" rel="nofollow ugc">configuration-based</a> <a href="https://docs.datawiza.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">no-code solution</a>, following the detail instruction <a href="https://docs.datawiza.com/step-by-step/step1.html" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>.
If you decide to use your own reverse proxy, please follow the instructions below.
How it works
<ul>
<li>The plugin retrieves the user id (email) from the JWT and then checks if such a user exists. If not, the plugin creates a new user by using this email and signs him/her in.</li>
<li>The plugin retrieves the user role from the JWT and sets it as the user’s role in WordPress.</li>
<li>
The plugin expects the JWT including user id and role as a HTTP header <code>DW-TOKEN</code>. For example, the payload of JWT may look like:
{ 
 “role”: “administrator”, 
 “email”: “admin@yourwebsite.com” 
}
</li>
</ul>
Plugin config in WordPress
In <code>Setting</code> -> <code>Datawiza Proxy Auth</code>, you need to input a private secret which is used as a Cryptography Key. Such secret is shared between the plugin and the reverse proxy which is responsible for passing the JWT to the plugin. The Signing Algorithm for the JWT is <code>HS256</code>.
!!! NOTES !!!
<ul>
<li>If the enabled Proxy Auth Plugin cannot retrieve the expected JWT in the HTTP header, the plugin will not work. The authentication will use the default authentication of wordpress and you will see an error banner on top of the wordpress pages.</li>
<li>MAKE SURE that clients cannot bypass the reverse proxy. This is to prevent people from sending forged malicious requests with arbitrary JWTs directly to WordPress.</li>
<li>It’s recommended that the reverse proxy in front of the WordPress site erases the incoming http request’s <code>DW-TOKEN</code> header. The <code>DW-TOKEN</code> header should be generated by the reverse proxy only.</li>
<li>If admin doesn’t assign role to the user, user’s role will be subscriber for WordPress by default.</li>
<li>If user’s role has been updated in JWT, the plugin will update the role in WordPress accordingly.</li>
</ul>
Generate the JWT required by the plugin
If you are using openresty/lua-nginx-module, here is the code sample to generate the JWT required by the plugin:
<pre><code>jwt = require("resty.jwt")
local jwt_token = jwt:sign(
 "jwt_secret",
 {
 header={typ="JWT", alg="HS256"},
 payload={email="admin@yourwebsite.com", role="administrator"}
 })
ngx.req.set_header('DW-TOKEN', jwt_token)
</code></pre>
The <code>jwt_secret</code> above should be the same private secret input in <code>Setting</code> -> <code>Datawiza Proxy Auth</code>. The <code>role</code> in <code>payload</code> is optional. If it’s not specified, the default role is <code>subscriber</code>. For more details about <code>lua-resty-jwt</code>, you can visit <a href="https://github.com/SkyLothar/lua-resty-jwt" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>.

Datawiza Proxy Auth Plugin – SSO

The Proxy Auth Plugin helps developers/DevOps/admins easily implement authentication and authorization for WordPress by using a JWT (JSON Web Token) p …

WP SAML Auth vs Datawiza Proxy Auth Plugin – SSO