Configure Zendesk SSO with Access for SaaS

This tutorial covers how to configure Zendesk SSO with Access for SaaS.

For this tutorial, you will need:

• A Zero Trust Account
• An integrated identity provider (IdP)
• Admin access to your Zendesk account

⏲️ Time to complete:

20 minutes

​​ Configure Zendesk and Cloudflare

1. Navigate to your Zendesk administrator dashboard, typically available at <yourdomain>.zendesk.com/admin/security/sso.

2. In a separate tab or window, open the Zero Trust Dashboard Open external link , select your account, and go to Access > Applications.

3. Select Add an application, then choose SaaS.

4. Input the following values in the Zero Trust application configuration:

   Zero Trust field	Value
   Entity ID	https://<yoursubdomain>.zendesk.com
   Assertion Consumer Service URL	contents of SAML SSO URL in Zendesk account
   Name ID Format	Email

5. (Optional) Configure these Attribute Statements to include a user’s first and last name:

   Cloudflare attribute name	IdP attribute value
   <first name>	http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname
   <last name>	http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/surname

   Zendesk will use the user’s email address as their name Open external link if the name is not provided.

   

6. To determine who can access Zendesk, create an Access policy.

7. Copy the values from the Cloudflare IdP fields and add them to the following Zendesk fields:

   Cloudflare IdP field	Zendesk field
   SSO Endpoint	SAML SSO URL
   Public Key (transformed to fingerprint)	Certificate Fingerprint

   To transform the public key into a fingerprint, use a fingerprint calculator Open external link :

   1. Copy the public key value and paste it into X.509 cert.

   2. Wrap the value with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and -----END CERTIFICATE-----.

   3. Set Algorithm to SHA256 and select Calculate Fingerprint.

   4. Copy the Formatted FingerPrint value.

   

8. Go to https://<yourdomain>.zendesk.com/admin/security/staff_members and enable External Authentication > Single Sign On.

Users should now be able to log in to Zendesk if their Email address exists in the Zendesk user list.