SecSign ID Plugin: Windows Credential Provider

This article gives an overview of securing your Windows Login with two-factor authentication. For a detailed tutorial on how to integrate two-factor authentication with your Windows Login, have a look at the plugin tutorial.

With the SecSign ID Two-Factor Authentication the user can log in to his Windows Desktop in just one convenient and quick step – without inconvenient and complex codes.
To login the user simply needs to provide user credentials like he is used to, and select the displayed symbol in his mobile app – that’s it. Next level security with minimal complexity.

If required you can choose mobile or Email OTP (one-time passwords) as alternative authentication option.

With SecSign enrollment of your users is quick and convenient for both the user and the administrator.

You have several options to enroll your users for 2FA with SecSign. Most commonly, the 2FA ID should be identical to the Windows user name (for example sAMAccountName or userPrincipalName), and only successfully authenticated (user name and password) users should be able to create a 2FA account.
SecSign offers several options to achieve a default 2FA activation and link of the 2FA with the AD user. The two most popular are described below.

With Schema Extension to add a 2FA attribute to the user in the Active Directory, or without Schema Extension and read-only access from the SecSign ID Server.

For both options the enrollment procedure can either proceed via the Custom ID App or a custom landing page for the users to enroll.

An overview on how the Active Directory can be integrated with you 2FA setup is available here.

With the SecSign ID credential provider plugin the user is prompted to use the SecSign ID log-in after the interactive Windows log-on with user name and password. This affects direct log-ins at the PC as well as Remote Desktop connections.

If you are testing the SecSign ID Credential Provider Plugin without connecting your Active Directory you need to make sure that the SecSign ID is the same as the user name for Windows. This setting can be automatically activated once you connect your Active Directory.

Windows Login: Prerequisites

The SecSign ID Credential Provider looks up the SecSign ID user name of a Windows user in the Active Directory of the Windows domain. If the user is not yet associated with an ID, he is prompted to create one either manually, or by being automatically redirected to the onboarding website. The following pre-requisites need to be fulfilled:

• The PC on which the credential provider is install must be member of a Windows domain and
• Active Directory Configuration

In some cases the Active Directory needs to be connected with the SecSign ID On-premise server. To realize the following situations a connection must be established:

• If the SecSign ID should match the Windows user name. This can be realized during the enrollment with the Active Directory.
• If the SecSign ID should not match the Windows user name. This can be realized both with and without Active Directory schema extension. With an Active Directory Schema Extension the plugin receives the ID from the AD. If no Active Directory Schema Extension is set up, the plugin can store the users ID.
• If the 2FA should only be activated for specific Active Directory groups or IP ranges. This setting can either be activated in the plugin or in the Active Directory. The Active Directory needs to be connected to the on-premise server if the settings are defined via the AD. A connection is also required if selective 2FA should be centrally activated for several plugins at once.

Windows Login: Installation

All Windows Plugins are available as a MSI for a convenient and quick install

Run SecSignCredProv-Setup.exe.

The installer will automatically download and install Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2015 runtime components as well as the .NET 4 runtime if not installed yet.

The SecSign ID Credential provider uses the following registry keys which you will find at HKLM\SOFTWARE\SecSign\CredentialProvider. Please edit them to match your environment:

• ServiceNameForSecSignApp: The name of your service for which the login will be secured by the SecSign ID. The SecSignApp will display this text during the log-in.
• ServiceAddressForSecSignApp: The address of your service for which the login will be secured by the SecSign ID. The SecSignApp will display this text during the log-in. Typically this is a URL.
• SecSignIDServerHostName: The host name of the SecSign ID Server.
• SecSignIDServerPort: The port at the SecSign ID Server for requests from mobile devices.
• UserGroupWithSecSignIDLogin: Name of the user group in the Active Directory that contains the users who will need to perform a 2FA after their password login. The SecSign ID user name is sAMAccountName of the Windows user. If all user groups have to perform 2FA, this field needs to be left empty.
  We recommend using a customized SecSign ID app in this scenario to ensure that a SecSign ID with this specific name can only be created, if the user knows the corresponding Windows Password.
  Users in subgroups are considered members of the group.
• RunAsDifferentUserSecSignIDProtected: If key is 1 the SecSign ID authentication starts when user attempts to “run as a different user”. If the registry key is 0, the normal Windows password prompt will be displayed.
• FallbackSecSignIDServerHostName: The host name of the optional fallback SecSign ID Server if you have one.
• FallbackSecSignIDServerPort: The port at the optional fallback SecSign ID Server for requests from mobile devices.

Windows Login: Login

With the SecSign ID Credential Provider installed, the Windows log-in consists of:

1. Windows username and password entry.
2. SecSign ID approval on the mobile device.

The Login with the SecSign ID may be performed by selecting the corresponding access pass in the SecSign App or with an one-time password that is displayed either in an authenticator app or the display of a hardware ID Token.

Login with Access Pass

Login with OTP (one-time password)

The SecSign ID Credential Provider is not active if Windows is booted into Safe Mode. That means it has to made sure that users cannot reboot Windows into Safe Mode.

For more information about the individual Windows Plugins select your user case below.