Introduction

A commonly used authentication method that can be used as a factor of the type "something you have" is authenticating using  one-time passwords (OTP).  This type of authentication method is added to the authentication options available during authentication by adding the method "One-Time Password" to the logon procedure.

There are three requirements for using One-Time Password authentication in DualShield;

  1. A suitable OTP token needs to have been assigned to the authenticating user's account (either time based or event based).
  2. The authentication method "one-time password" must have been added to the logon procedure of the protected application.
  3. The user must have received a copy of the token that was sent to them (either by email or SMS) so that it can either be added to an authentication app or programmed onto a programmable token.

DualShield supports the following possible authentication products that can produce one-time passwords;

  1. MobileID Time/Based tokens
  2. MobileID Event/Based tokens
  3. Google Authentiicator Time/Based tokens
  4. Google Authenticator Event/Basesd tokens
  5. Microsoft Authenticator Time/Based tokens
  6. SafeID hardware token

This guide explains how to use Google Authenticator Time/Based tokens, however if a user is logging in to a protected application and has any of the other OTP tokens assigned to them, then they can supply an OTP code from any of the alternative sources.

Policy Setting Options

Before we create and assign the Google Authenticator Tokens to users we should first select the product's policy settings;

For a full list of options available to the policy settings available used by Google Authenticator tokens see the following wiki guide;


Creating and Assigning Google Authenticator Tokens

Once you have set the token policy options you are ready to create and assign the tokens to users. 

If you are the system administrator, and you want to test this authentication solution prior to deployment to your users, then a good solution would be to create a test account (with an email address) in the management console domain, and then use this account to test that OTP authentication is operating properly prior to deploying the solution to your users.

The following procedure will create an account that can be used for testing google authenticator tokens, and will also demonstrate how google authenticator tokens can be assigned to this account;

Preparing a test application

In order to test our newly assigned token we will need to prepare the Google Authenticator policy settings, then Create an application that is OTP protected that can be used to test the token.

Testing OTP access using the Goggle Authenticator Token

Now that we have a test application that is protected with OTP authentication, we will open a new incognito window and test logging in to our OTP protected application.

Testing if the server clock needs correcting

QR codes are an efficient method of sending token data to users but before we test this process it is worth checking that the authentication server's clock has been set correctly (if this is not the case then the OTP codes generated by the server will not match those produced by the client).

Pushing QR Codes

To test sending the QR code by email you will need to perform some additional preparations.

Provision and deploy tokens to users

There are several methods that may be used to provision a token to the user;








User Experience

Once tokens have been deployed to the user, and they have been added to their authentication devices (desktop pc app, smartphone or programmable hardware token), the user is ready to use their authentication device during the logon process of a protected application.

For testing with users that are members of an external directory, you will need to ensure that the domain that they are members of, is included in the realm that the protected application is assigned to (in the following example we added the domain "pb.deepnetid.com" to the realm for the reset password service).

The user would first attempt to access the protected application by accessing the logon portal, then after supplying their username the user is prompted to enter their One-Time Password;


The user would then launch their Authentication App  (or press the power button on their hardware token) and copy the 6 digit code into the logon screen, click "Verify", and they will be granted access to the protected service.

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