Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO Configuration Page

Single Sign-On allows users to authenticate with Headplane through an external Identity Provider (IdP). It does this using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol, which is widely supported by many popular IdPs.

Getting Started

To set up Single Sign-On (SSO) with Headplane, there are several steps involved. As a general recommendation, please read through the entire guide before beginning the process as there are several important factors to consider.

Requirements

WARNING

If you are also using OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication with Headscale, it is fundamentally important that both Headscale and Headplane are configured to use the exact same client in your Identity Provider (IdP). This means that both services should share the same client ID and secret.

This is necessary because Headplane relies on the user IDs provided by the IdP to match users with their equivalent Headscale users. If Headscale and Headplane are using different clients, the user IDs may not match up correctly, preventing a user from viewing their devices in Headplane.

You'll need the following things set up before proceeding:

• A working Headplane installation that is already configured.
• An Identity Provider (IdP) that supports OAuth2 and OpenID Connect (OIDC).
• server.base_url set to the public URL of your Headplane instance in your configuration file (ie. the domain that's visible in the browser).
• A Headscale API key with a relatively long expiration time (eg. 1 year).

Configuring the Client

You'll need to create a client in your Identity Provider (IdP) that Headplane can use for authentication. A part of that step involves giving an allowed "redirect URL" to your IdP. This URL is where the IdP will send users back to after they have authenticated.

For Headplane, the redirect URL will be in the following format, where the domain is replaced with the value set for server.base_url in your Headplane configuration:

https://headplane.example.com/admin/oidc/callback

Once you have created the client in your IdP, make note of the following information as you'll need it for the Headplane configuration:

• Client ID
• Client Secret (if applicable)
• Issuer URL

OIDC Configuration

To enable OIDC authentication in Headplane, you'll need to add the necessary configuration options via the file or environment variables. See below:

oidc:
  headscale_api_key: "<generated-api-key>"
  issuer: "https://your-idp.com"
  client_id: "your-client-id"
  client_secret: "your-client-secret"
  # You can also provide the client secret via a file:
  # client_secret_path: "${HOME}/secrets/headplane_oidc_client_secret.txt"

  # Those options should generally be sufficient, but you can also set these:
  # authorization_endpoint: ""
  # token_endpoint: ""
  # userinfo_endpoint: ""
  # scope: "openid email profile"
  # extra_params:
  #  foo: "bar"
  #  baz: "qux"

Headplane automatically tries to discover the necessary OIDC endpoints but if your IdP does not support discovery, you may need to manually specify them.

PKCE

WARNING

Headplane currently only supports the S256 code challenge method for PKCE. You may need to ensure that your Identity Provider is configured to accept this method.

By default, Headplane does not use PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) when communicating with the Identity Provider. PKCE is generally a best practice for OIDC and can enhance security. Some Identity Providers may even require PKCE to be used. To enable PKCE you'll need to set oidc.use_pkce to true in your Headplane configuration file:

oidc:
  use_pkce: true

Troubleshooting

Some of the common issues you may encounter when configuring OIDC with Headplane include:

• Invalid API Key: Ensure that the API key provided to Headplane is valid and has not expired.
• Missing [some]_endpoint: If your IdP does not provide standard OIDC endpoints, you may need to manually specify them in the Headplane configuration.
• Missing the sub claim: Ensure that your IdP is configured to include the sub claim in the ID token, as this is required for Headplane to identify users.
• Redirect URI Mismatch: Ensure that the redirect URI configured in your IdP and that server.base_url in Headplane match exactly.
• Cookie Issues: The OIDC authentication relies on your cookie configuration for Headplane. If OIDC cannot complete due to a missing session or invalid session then please check your cookie settings.