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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) integration with Check Point Harmony Connect

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In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Check Point Harmony Connect with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Check Point Harmony Connect with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Check Point Harmony Connect.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Check Point Harmony Connect with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Check Point Harmony Connect single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO in a test environment.

  • Check Point Harmony Connect supports SP initiated SSO.

Note

Identifier of this application is a fixed string value so only one instance can be configured in one tenant.

To configure the integration of Check Point Harmony Connect into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Check Point Harmony Connect from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
  3. In the Add from the gallery section, type Check Point Harmony Connect in the search box.
  4. Select Check Point Harmony Connect from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Alternatively, you can also use the Enterprise App Configuration Wizard. In this wizard, you can add an application to your tenant, add users/groups to the app, assign roles, as well as walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for Check Point Harmony Connect

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Check Point Harmony Connect using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in Check Point Harmony Connect.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Check Point Harmony Connect, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure Check Point Harmony Connect SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Check Point Harmony Connect test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Check Point Harmony Connect that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Check Point Harmony Connect > Single sign-on.

  3. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  4. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, enter the values for the following fields:

    In the Sign on URL text box, type the URL: https://cloudinfra-gw.portal.checkpoint.com/api/saml/sso

  6. Check Point Harmony Connect application expects the SAML assertions in a specific format, which requires you to add custom attribute mappings to your SAML token attributes configuration. The following screenshot shows the list of default attributes.

    image

  7. In addition to above, Check Point Harmony Connect application expects few more attributes to be passed back in SAML response which are shown below. These attributes are also pre populated but you can review them as per your requirements.

    Name Source Attribute
    groups user.groups

  8. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, find Federation Metadata XML and select Download to download the certificate and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  9. On the Set up Check Point Harmony Connect section, copy the appropriate URL(s) based on your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to Check Point Harmony Connect.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Check Point Harmony Connect.
  3. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Check Point Harmony Connect SSO

  1. Log in to your Check Point Harmony Connect website as an administrator.

  2. Click SETTINGS, then go to the Identity Provider and click on CONNECT NOW.

    screenshot for identity provider.

  3. Select Microsoft Entra ID as your identity provider and click NEXT.

    screenshot to select identity provider.

  4. On the Verify Domain page, enter your organization domain and enter this generated DNS record to your DNS server as TXT record, click NEXT.

    screenshot for Domain value.

  5. In the Allow Connectivity page, perform the following steps:

    screenshot for Allow Connectivity page.

    a. Copy ENTITY ID value, paste this value into the Identifier text box in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

    b. Copy REPLY URL value, paste this value into the Reply URL text box in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

    c. Click NEXT.

  6. In the Configure Metadata page, upload the Federation Metadata XML that you downloaded from your Azure portal.

  7. In the CONFIRM IDENTITY PROVIDER page, click Add to complete the configuration.

Create Check Point Harmony Connect test user

  1. Log in to your Check Point Harmony Connect website as an administrator.

  2. Go to the Policy -> Access Control and create a new rule and click on (+) to add New User.

    screenshot for create new user.

  3. In the ADD USER window, enter the Name and User Name in their respective text boxes and click ADD.

    screenshot for create user.

Test SSO

To test the Check Point Harmony Connect, go to their Authentication service and authenticate using test account which you have created in the Create a Microsoft Entra test user section.

Next steps

Once you configure Check Point Harmony Connect you can enforce session control, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session control extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.