Integrate Okta with Liferay DXP using OpenID Connect

Introduction

Prerequisites

Okta Dev account

Liferay DXP environment

Administrative access to Okta Admin Console

Administrative access to Liferay's Control Panel

Steps

1. Log in to Okta Dev and navigate to Applications → Add Application → Create App Integration.

2. Select OIDC - OpenID Connect, under Sign-in method, and Web Application, under Application type.



3. Enter Liferay DXP - OIDC as the app integration name.

4. For grant types, select Authorization Code and Refresh Token.

5. Enter https://[your_instance_url]/c/portal/login/openidconnect for the sign-in redirect URIs.

6. Enter https://[your_instance_url] for the sign-out redirect URIs.

7. Under assignments, select Skip group assignment for now.

8. Click Save.

9. On the Assignments tab, assign users to this application.

Note

Make sure to assign yourself and provision your own user account so that you will still be able to log in as the Liferay administrator.

10. Now obtain the endpoint URLs: In your Okta Dev account, go to the side panel and navigate to Security → API.

11. Under the “Authorization Servers” tab, locate the server named default and click on it to edit its configuration.



12. Click on the "Metadata URI" link, which typically looks like this: https://dev-123456.okta.com/oauth2/default/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server. Here are examples:

13. This will give you the necessary URLs, with the exception of /userinfo endpoint. You can construct that endpoint by combining your base URL with the Auth Server name. For example: https://dev-123456.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/userinfo.

14. Now configure the Liferay DXP instance: On your DXP instance, navigate to Global Menu → Control Panel → Instance Settings → Security → SSO.

15. Go to the OpenID Connect Provider Connection tab and add a new connection entry.

16. Fill in the fields with the data you find at the endpoint URLs, as shown in the table below.

    Field	Data
    Provider Name	Okta OIDC
    Scopes	scopes_supported
    Authorization Endpoint	authorization_endpoint url
    Issuer URL	issuer url
    JWKS URI	jwks_uri url
    Subject Types	subject_types_supported
    Token Endpoint	token_endpoint url
    User Information Endpoint	Combine your base URL with the Auth Server name. For example: https://dev-123456.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/userinfo
    OpenID Connect Client ID	Under your application's General tab in Okta
    OpenID Connect Client Secret	Under your application's General tab in Okta

17. Enable OpenID Connect: Navigate to Global Menu → Control Panel → Configuration → Instance Settings.

18. Click on SSO under the security section.

19. Go to the OpenID Connect tab, click the Enabled checkbox and click Save.



20. To validate the configuration, in your Liferay DXP instance, click on the Sign In button and choose OpenId Connect.

Note

By default, Liferay DXP requires new users verify their email address upon first login. This requires Liferay DXP to have a configured connection to a mail server, in order to send the verification emails. To disable this requirement navigate to Control Panel → Instance Settings → Platform → User Authentication and unselect the checkbox for "Require strangers to verify their email address”.



21. Choose Client to Okta OIDC from the list.



22. You are redirected to sign in to Liferay DXP using your Okta account.

Conclusion

Your Liferay installation now supports authentication using Okta and OpenID Connect!

Tips