What are you folks using for self-hosted single sign-on?
I have my little LDAP server (lldap is fan-fucking-tastic – far easier to work with than OpenLDAP, which gave me nothing but heartburn). Some applications can be configured to work with it directly; several don’t have LDAP account support. And, ultimately, it’d be nice to have SSO - having the same password everywhere if great, but having to sign in only once (per day or week, or whatever) would be even nicer.
There are several self-hosted Auth* projects; which is the simplest and easiest? I’d really just like a basic start-it-up, point it at my LDAP server, and go. Fine grained ACLs and RBAC support is nice and all, but simplicity is trump in my case. Configuring these systems is, IME, a complex process, with no small numbers of dials to turn.
A half dozen users, and probably only two groups: admin, and everyone else. I don’t need fancy. OSS, of course. Is there any of these projects that fit that bill? It would seem to be a common use case for self-hosters, who don’t need all the bells and whistles of enterprise-grade solutions.
FreeIPA + Keycloak
FreeIPA includes Kerberos so the SSO extends to Linux logins. Further, Keycloak supports Kerberos so if I’m logged in on an FreeIPA enrolled client Keycloak is transparent with no additional password. Thus, anything I can goes through Keycloak, otherwise manual LDAP to FreeIPA.
FreeIPA also handles most of my homelab’s DNS and honestly was not too hard to setup. I’m running it in a Alma Linux VM on Proxmox so it will be supported for a while.
For my web ui apps I just use traefik forward auth with Google. Works great for my use case
I use authentik
I tried Authelia but couldn’t set it up, so I’ve been using Authentik and have been quite happy. The only downside is that I had to configure it using the GUI instead of with config files, which I think would have been a point for Authelia, but couldn’t get it to work properly.
Sounds like you need to talk with @retro@infosec.pub from elsewhere in this comment section.
I use Keycloak
Authentik! i’ve been using it since over a year and its been a wonderful experience. supports many protocols and is updated regularly, as a beginner i didnt have difficulty setting it up, has decent documentation for integrations.
That’s the one I keep seeing and thinking, maybe I should try it. Thanks for the input!
I’d also recommend Authentik. It’s simpler than something like keycloak imo and works pretty well. They also have guides for quite a few self hosted services.
I did have issues with it being slow at some point, but an update fixed it iirc.
Just copied and pasted my comment from another recent post about Authelia.
After recently trying Authelia I gave up and moved to Authentik. Very much appreciate the all in one functionality of it. The company even paid a YouTuber to make a bunch of useful step by step tutorials and they have been invaluable. They also have a number of SSO integration instructions for various software. I highly recommend giving it a try if you’re in the market for an easy enough self hosted SSO and proxy password system.
Thanks! Two for Authentik.
I think it really shines because it supports everything. LDAP, SAML, OAUTH2, OpenID, everything. There are options for TOTP, Duo, Webauth, etc… and you can enforce MFA if you like. The only apps I have been unable to integrate are ones that offer no SSO integration at all.
Are you taking about Jim’s Garage?
Cooptonian was the one I found.
paid a YouTuber
a link to his/her channel would be great.
Thanks a lot!
No problem. Thanks for the reminder that just because he’s the first thing I see when I search Authentik on YouTube doesn’t mean that’s what you get.
Authelia.
Learn it, its worth while.
Nice and easy. I set it up on the server itself, no container.
See https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=selfhost%3Asso and https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=services%3Aauthelia
Keycloak might seem a little daunting to start with, but is basically glue between your idp (ldap) and whatever apps need to authenticate.
Another for Keycloak. Though it is probably overkill for many people’s needs in here - it certainly is for mine! But it is what I have up and running and see no need to change to a simpler option.
My issue with keycloak is that the documentation is very poor as a beginner. It and almost any other guides online assume you already know things that you may not so I wasn’t able to get past that hurdle.
Strongly agree. A guide for dead simple setups would be incredibly useful (e.g. gsuite as idp, oauth for a single app).
It took me a few days to get that basic setup working, and a few days more to improve it. But once it was up, it was rock solid.
LLDAP + Authelia
I actually moved from Authentik to Authelia because it was easier for me to add a couple of lines to a yaml than to navigate Authentik’s web ui. Authentik is more feature-full but I’m only running SSO for myself and a couple of others at home.
Pocket id is my go to. I used to use Authentik, but it was overkill for us. Pocket ID is pretty simple to use and has a very nice interface to add your users and clients. Uncluttered and straight and to the point. Pocket ID doesn’t use UN/PW Combos. Instead, you use Passkeys as in webAuthn devices to log in, which IMHO is one of the better security paths.
If Pocket ID and Passkeys are like most modern “solutions”, they ignore everything that isn’t web, or human. Have you hooked any services together using it? Like having Home Assistant authenticate against mpd?
Passkeys work on whatever platforms your passkey is compatible with. I store mine in my BitWarden vault which works on web/PC/mobile just fine.
Pocket ID is an OpenID Connect provider (basically OAuth), so it depends on whichever apps you’re using having support for that.
Home Assistant does not natively support OIDC, but there is a community project in active development which aims to add support.
I have several services. Home Assistant is not one as it’s still a WIP for the person who’s developing a solution. It works, but I’m sort of holding off until I can test it more with the mobile app.
https://github.com/christiaangoossens/hass-oidc-auth
But, to answer your question: I log into Tailscale with it. I also have it connected to Proxmox and Portainer Additionally, I have it connected to Pomerium so I can log into my FreshTomato Router with a fingerprint :) I also have a self hosted PasteBin connected to it.
It just doesnt work in Firefox (mobile android)
I just tested my version of Firefox (Fresh from Play Store) and it worked without issues on my end to login to the server.
The only browser I’m aware of which doesn’t support it is the Duck Duck Go Browser which is a shame. They don’t seem to care about enabling WebAuthn support.
Yes! I’ve used that page extensively. It doesn’t, however, address SSO.
I used to run key cloak backed by LDAP. Few months ago moved to Authelia and after many hours of tinkering and setting up sites I haven’t had to touch it except to add a new URL or user.
I slightly disagree with the other commenter I didn’t find it easy or straightforward but once I finally found what worked for my setup its been great.
Imagine Authelia is the caddy of SSO. Powerful, intimidating but very efficient. Also all configs are in like 3 files and things aren’t going to change without FS access which only I the admin have.
I’ve tried and failed a couple of times, would you mind sharing (or dming) your example config? Maybe I’m just a been with sso and can’t figure it out
Certainly, I’ll post it tomorrow
Caddy is anything but intimidating! If Authelia is anything like Caddy in ease of use, sign me up!
Kerberos, you say? Single sign-on?
Have you heard about the LDAP and Kerberos configured as part of setting up samba4ad?
I accidentally enabled SSO SSH a few years back. My samba units aren’t on PIs but they could be. They’re just on tiny tiny VMs.
Keycloak. Took me a bit to learn the basics, but it has been way easier to troubleshoot than Authentik and has more features. If you need something that mimics LDAP rather than syncing with an existing LDAP, then Authentik is pretty good. I don’t use LDAP, though.
Yeah, I want to keep my LDAP. Whatever sits on top has to use it as a backend.
If you want to keep your LDAP as the source of truth, then Keycloak is also a very good option. I did that originally, but decided I only had a couple of things needing LDAP and that wasn’t worth keeping it around. Authentik was a good way to emulate an LDAP but with a different back end. But Keycloak is definitely my recommendation in your case.
