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SSO with PingIdentity

OX Security supports Single Sign-On (SSO) for secure authentication and centralized access control. The connection allows users to sign in to OX Security with their corporate credentials managed by an Identity Provider (IdP).

OX Security supports:

  • Auto-provisioning: Automatically creates user accounts at first login.

  • App-initiated login: Starts login directly from the OX sign-in page.

  • Group-based roles and scopes: Assigns OX permissions based on IdP groups.

When auto-provisioning is ON:

  • OX automatically creates a user account when someone signs in through the IdP.

  • Account details (name, email, groups) come directly from the IdP.

  • You do not need to invite users manually.

When auto-provisioning is OFF:

  • OX does not create accounts automatically.

  • You must invite users manually before they can access OX.

  • Users who are not invited using the OX Members page receive the Read Only role by default. You can change this setting and define any other role as default. See Roles.

  • When auto-provisioning with roles is configured, role assignments must be managed in the IdP.

  • Roles assigned directly in OX are ignored for SSO users.

Prerequisites

  • OX and IdP admin permissions

  • Access to your PingIdentity SAML configuration details and X.509 certificate

  • A decision on enabling optional features:

    • App-initiated login

    • Auto-provisioning for roles

    • Auto-provisioning for scopes

If you are new to PingIdentity, check out the article Quickstart: Create a PingIdentity Application.

Process steps

  1. Get the OX inputs for your IdP [OX]

  2. Register the application [IdP]

  3. Configure the IdP settings [IdP]

  4. Configure SSO [OX]

  5. Enable IdP app-initiated login and visibility [OX - IdP]

  6. Configure auto-provisioning for roles [OX - IdP]

  7. Configure Auto-Provisioning for Scopes [OX - IdP]

  8. Test the sign-in [OX]

  9. Troubleshooting

Step 1: Get OX Inputs for your IdP [OX]

The inputs are specific for your IdP and organization.

  1. To get the correct values from OX, go to Settings > Login and click the IdP icon. The Configuration screen opens.

  1. Click PINGIDENTITY SSO SETUP INSTRUCTIONS.

  2. Locate the parameters, copy the values, and save them for use in Step 3.

    • Single Sign-On URL (ACS)

    • SP Entity ID

    • Initiate login URI

Step 2: Register the application [IdP]

  1. Log in to your PingIdentity Admin Console.

  2. Go to Applications > Add Application.

  3. Select SAML 2.0 as the sign-in method.

  4. Enter an application name, for example, OX Security SSO.

  5. Save the changes.

Step 3: Configure the IdP settings [IdP]

  1. In your PingIdentity console, under the application you created, go to the Browser SSO/Connection tab (or similar).

  2. Paste the OX values from the Configuration screen that you saved in Step 1 and paste them into your IdP's configuration:

    • Single Sign-On URL (ACS)

    • Audience URI (SP Entity ID)

    • Initiate Login URI (Target Resource URL in PingIdentity)

  3. In Attribute Mapping (or Attribute Contract) set the attributes for: name, email, email_verified.

  4. Collect and save the following PingIdentity details to paste into OX later:

    • Initiate Single Sign-On URL: the IdP SSO endpoint

    • X.509 Certificate: download the signing certificate (PEM .crt file). It’s already Base64-encoded.

Step 4: Configure SSO [OX]

  1. In OX, go to Settings > Login and click the relevant IdP icon. The Configuration screen opens.

  2. Enter the details collected from your IdP in Step 3.

    • Initiate Single Sign-On URL

    • X.509 certificate (Base64)

  3. Click Save.

    Auto-provisioning is enabled by default. The feature allows OX to create user accounts automatically upon first sign-in. To disable it, deactivate the toggle.

Optional Step 5: Enable IdP app-initiated login and visibility [OX-IdP]

This step allows users to start their login directly from your IdP dashboard.

  1. In your IdP, open General Settings (or Connection Configuration) for the PingIdentity app

  2. Add the Initiate login URI you saved in Step 1.

  3. Click Save.

Optional Step 6: Configure auto-provisioning for roles [OX-IdP]

This step enables the automatic assignment of OX Security roles based on user groups in your IdP. There are the following types of roles:

  • Roles predefined by OX,

  • Custom roles.

Create user groups for predefined roles

Each predefined role group requires a prefix. The default is: OXApp-. You can change the default prefix to a custom one.

To change the default prefix:

  1. Go to Settings > Login > [IdP icon] and enter a different prefix.

  1. Create IdP role groups: In your IdP, go to Directory > Groups and create groups using these exact names (case-sensitive) for each OX role you want to sync:

  • OXApp-Admin

  • OXApp-Developer

  • OXApp-Dev Manager/Security Champion

  • OXApp-Policy Manager

  • OXApp-Read Only

Create user groups for custom roles

In case you have custom role(s) defined in OX, you need to create groups using the exact labels OX generates for your custom roles. The label is different from the custom role name.

You can view the custom role label only in the instructions provided by OX within the Configuration dialog.

To locate the custom role label:

  1. Go to Settings > Login > [IdP icon] and in the instruction box, select +.

  2. Scroll down in the instructions box until you get to Advanced settings (auto provisioning) - Setting roles.

  3. Read the procedure. The custom role label appears next to the custom role name in brackets. You cannot change it.

  4. Use this label as the name of your new group in IdP.

For example:

I know that the admin defined a custom role called Executive Viewer. If I am looking for the label that OX generated for the custom role Executive Viewer, first I locate the custom role Executive Viewer in brackets and then I can see that OX generated a label for this custom role "OXApp-CustomRole1".

Complete the process

  1. Map group attributes: In your IdP, ensure you have groups attribute mapping enabled.

  2. Enable sync: In OX, go to Settings > Login > [IdP icon] and enable Sync OX Group Roles using the prefix you selected.

  3. Select Save.

  4. In the IdP, assign users who need that specific scope access as members of the corresponding group.

Optional Step 7: Configure Auto-Provisioning for Scopes [OX-IdP]

This step enables the automatic assignment of granular access scopes based on user groups in your IdP. There is no prefix required for Scopes in OX; however, you do need to create a Scopes group and assign an owner.

  1. In OX, go to the Applications page, and select an app from the list. From the header, click the Assign Owner icon.

  2. In the Assign Application Owners screen:

    • Select a role.

    • App New Owner: Enter a descriptive name.

    • Email: Enter an email. The email can be a functional address.

  3. Click + ADD. This generates the SSO Group String. Save this string to paste into the IdP.

  4. Create scope groups in the IdP.

    In your IdP, create groups for the OX scopes that you want to assign.

For App owner and other UI-visible scopes

Use the SSO Group String that you generated in OX in the previous steps as the IdP group name.

Example:

For tag scopes

Tag scopes are not displayed in the OX scope selector, so OX does not generate an SSO Group String for them.

Instead, create the IdP group name by using the following format:

Example:

Replace:

  • <TAG_NAME> with the tag name.

  • <TAG_ID> with the unique ID of the tag.

The tag ID is not available in the OX user interface. To obtain it, use the OX API to retrieve the tag details, and then use the returned tag ID when constructing the group name.

Note: Tag IDs can currently be retrieved only through the OX API by using the Get Single Tag endpoint.

  1. Assign members in the IdP: In the IdP, assign members to the relevant scope groups.

  2. Enable sync in OX: In OX, go to Settings > Login > [Idp] and enable the toggle Sync OX Group Scopes. Generally select the Entire Organization.

  3. Click Save.

Step 8: Test the Sign-In [OX]

  1. In OX, log out and then log in again using your SSO.

  2. Verify that the configured roles and scopes from your IdP are applied correctly.

Your OX organization is now connected to your IdP. Users can sign in securely with corporate credentials, and applied roles and scopes are based on the IdP configuration.

Troubleshooting

The table lists some possible issues and recommended actions.

Issue
Recommended Action

Users cannot sign in

Verify that the PingIdentity Single Sign-On Service URL and X.509 certificate match the OX setup.

Account not created

Enable auto-provisioning in OX or invite the user manually.

Role not applied

Ensure PingIdentity group names match OX role names exactly.

Scope not applied

Confirm group naming follows OXAppOwnerScope- or OXTagScope- format.

Role changes ignored in OX

Manage all role assignments within PingIdentity.

Certificate errors

Re-upload a valid Base64-encoded certificate in OX.

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