Duo Protection for Smartsheet with Duo Access Gateway

Smartsheet requires Duo Access Gateway version 1.2.0 or greater. Please upgrade your Duo Access Gateway before attempting to use Smartsheet.

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.

Duo Access Gateway

Duo Access Gateway (DAG), our on-premises SSO product, layers Duo's strong authentication and flexible policy engine on top of Smartsheet logins using the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 authentication standard. Duo Access Gateway acts as an identity provider (IdP), authenticating your users using existing on-premises or cloud-based directory credentials and prompting for two-factor authentication before permitting access to Smartsheet.

Duo Access Gateway is included in the 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 Smartsheet. Duo checks the user, device, and network against an application's policy before allowing access to the application.

Deploy or Update Duo Access Gateway

1. Install Duo Access Gateway on a server in your DMZ. Follow our instructions for deploying the server, configuring DAG settings, and adding an Authentication Source.

2. Add the attribute from the table below that corresponds to the Duo Mail attribute in the "Attributes" field when configuring your Active Directory or OpenLDAP authentication source in the DAG admin console. For example, if Active Directory is your authentication source, enter mail in the "Attributes" field.

   Duo Attribute	Active Directory	OpenLDAP
   Mail attribute	mail	mail

   If your organization uses another directory attribute than the ones listed here then enter that attribute name instead. If you've already configured the attributes list for another cloud service provider, append the additional attributes not already present to the list, separated by a comma.

3. After completing the initial DAG configuration steps, click Applications on the left side of the Duo Access Gateway admin console.

4. Scroll down the Applications page to the Metadata section. This is the information you need to provide to Smartsheet when configuring SSO. Click the Download XML metadata link to obtain the DAG metadata file (the downloaded file is named "dag.xml").

   

Enable Smartsheet SSO

Add the Duo Access Gateway as a new single sign-on provider for Smartsheet.

1. Log into Smartsheet as an administrative user and click your user profile icon in the upper right-hand side of the page. Click Plan & Billing Info... from the drop-down. A pop-up will appear.

2. In the "Account Administration" pop-up click Security Controls and then click Edit next to the Authentication section.

3. Once on the "Authentication" page click not configured (or "edit configuration" if you already have SAML configured) next to SAML.

4. When the SAML Administration window appears click Add IdP.

5. In the IdP Nickname field type Duo Access Gateway

6. Open the dag.xml metadata file downloaded earlier from the Duo Access Gateway admin console in a text editor (like Notepad), and copy the entire contents of the file. Paste the XML file text into the IdP MetaData field.

7. Click Save. The information will be validated and the Edit IdP window will appear.

8. On the Edit IdP page next to IdP Status click Activate. A pop-up will tell you it might take 10 minutes for the IdP to activate. Dismiss this message.

9. Click the X at the top of the window to close the "Edit IdP" page. Click the X at the top of the "SAML Administration" window to close the page.

10. On the Authentication window check the box next to SAML to enable it as an active authentication source and then click Save and confirm the change.

    

Learn more about Smartsheet SSO at the Smartsheet Support Site.

Create the Smartsheet Application in Duo

1. Log on to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to Applications → Protect an Application.

2. Locate the entry for Smartsheet with a protection type of "2FA with SSO self-hosted (Duo Access Gateway)" in the applications list. Click Protect to the far-right to start configuring Smartsheet. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications in Duo and additional application options.

3. Smartsheet uses the Mail attribute when authenticating. We've mapped Mail attribute to DAG supported authentication source attributes as follows:

   Duo Attribute	Active Directory	OpenLDAP	SAML IdP	Google	Azure
   Mail attribute	mail	mail	mail	email	mail

   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.

4. Click Save Configuration when done.

   

5. 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 — or come back and change the application's policies and settings after you finish SSO setup. If you do update any settings, click the Save Changes button when done.

6. Click the Download your configuration file link to obtain the Smartsheet application settings (as a JSON file).

   Important: This file contains information that uniquely identifies this application to Duo. Secure this file as you would any other sensitive or password information. Don't share it with unauthorized individuals or email it to anyone under any circumstances!

Add the Smartsheet Application to Duo Access Gateway

Before you do this, verify that you updated the "Attributes" list for your Duo Access Gateway authentication source as specified here.

1. Return to the Applications page of the DAG admin console session.

2. Click the Choose File button in the "Add Application" section of the page and locate the Smartsheet SAML application JSON file you downloaded from the Duo Admin Panel earlier. Click the Upload button after selecting the JSON configuration file.

3. The Smartsheet SAML application is added.

   

Verify SSO

Go to the Smartsheet login page and type in your e-mail address and click Continue. The page will reload with new login options, click Company Login. This redirects to the Duo Access Gateway login page. Enter your primary directory logon information, approve Duo two-factor authentication, and get redirected back to the Smartsheet site after authenticating.

If using the Smartsheet mobile app, type in your e-mail address and tap "Log In". A new page will load, tap the "Use my Corporate Login" button, and then authenticate to Duo Access Gateway.

Congratulations! Your Smartsheet users now authenticate using Duo Access Gateway.

Enforce SSO

You can require that all users sign into Smartsheet using the Duo Access Gateway.

1. Return to Smartsheet and click your user profile icon in the upper right-hand side of the page. Click Plan & Billing Info... from the drop-down. A pop-up will appear.

2. In the "Account Administration" pop-up click Security Controls and then click Edit next to the Authentication section.

3. Once on the "Authentication" page uncheck all options except for SAML. You can optionally allow administrators to still fall back using a password.

4. Click Save.

Microsoft AD FS

Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) is a popular choice for SSO because it easily integrates with the AD identity store many organizations already have deployed. Duo's support for cloud applications and SSO drops in to an existing AD FS installation to provide secondary authentication after a user passes primary authentication (successful Active Directory logon).

If you don't already have AD federation running the first step is to install and configure Microsoft AD FS in your organization. Deployment Guides for AD FS versions 2.1, and 3.0/4.0 are available from Microsoft.

Once your AD FS services are up and running, the second step is to configure the SSO partnership between your AD FS service and the external cloud resource, in this case Smartsheet. Learn more about configuring Smartsheet SSO with AD FS at the Smartsheet Support site.

After you have successfully configured and tested AD FS SSO login to Smartsheet using your AD domain credentials, you can then install the Duo AD FS integration. AD FS protection is included with Duo Essentials, Duo Advantage, and Duo Premier plans.

With the Duo integration for AD FS installed, users pass primary authentication to the AD FS service as usual. Once primary authentication succeeds, users are forwarded to the Duo service for secondary authentication. After approving logon using one of Duo's authentication methods, the user is fully logged in to Smartsheet.

Other Identity Partners

Using a third-party SSO provider for cloud application access? Duo partners with leading cloud SSO providers like Okta and OneLogin to secure access with our strong and flexible authentication platform.

You can also use Duo two-factor authentication with CAS and Shibboleth on-premises IdPs.

Troubleshooting

Need some help? Try searching our Knowledge Base articles or Community discussions. For further assistance, contact Support.