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.
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.
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
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.
It juat doesnt wirk in Firefox (mobile android)
I use authentik
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.
I don’t like the interface for setting up flows. Feels needlessly complicated.
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
Thank you!
Caddy is anything but intimidating! If Authelia is anything like Caddy in ease of use, sign me up!
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.
Are you taking about Jim’s Garage?
Cooptonian was the one I found.
Edit: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH73rprBo7vSkDq-hAuXOoXx2es-1ExOP
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.
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.
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. 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.
Keycloak might seem a little daunting to start with, but is basically glue between your idp (ldap) and whatever apps need to authenticate.
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.
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.
Keycloak here, I plugged my keycloak into my Google workspace. Yes I know Google!!
But the login flow is amazing and I get all the MFA without the faff
And keycloak has a decent k8s operator, making deployment on a k8s cluster a breeze
Plus one for Keycloak here. Initially it may be a bit daunting but once it’s set it’s a rock and works flawlessly!
I use KaniDM and configured everything with OAuth2. That was the easiest and most straightforward I could find. But I don’t think they bothered implementing LDAP. Other platforms I tried are Authentik, Authelia, Keycloak, Zitadel… They’re all a bit heavier and have other/more features, but there wasn’t one I really fell in love with.
Kanidm has LDAP support but it’s read-only. You should prefer OAuth though since LDAP is locked to password login.
Yes! I’ve used that page extensively. It doesn’t, however, address SSO.
