Logon Times Authentication

Christopher Dakin

Introduction

With LogonBox, you have the option of locking down access to the system only during certain times or days. This is supported with the Logon Times Authentication module.

This article explains how to configure your LogonBox to use this Authentication method.

 

1. Configuring the Authentication Scheme

It is important to note that you can apply different authentication flows for six different types of logon: User Logon, Password Reset, Client, Account Unlock, SSO and Admin Logon.

Each of these can have their own default authentication flow configured, but for this article we shall alter Password Reset.

Navigate to Authentication->Schemes->Password Reset. Note that by default this is configured with a yellow Username module and a green Security Questions one.

First note the colour of the Logon Times module, which is red. This means that this module can be combined with any of the other modules, but does not in itself establish the identity of a user. Hence you must use this module in combination with either a yellow or a blue module. Red modules themselves can be placed anywhere in the authentication flow, even before a yellow or blue one.

Let’s keep the existing Username and Security Questions modules and click the plus icon next to Logon Times to add it into the authentication flow.

As this module can be placed anywhere, it might make sense to place it at the start of the authentication flow so that users will not even get prompted for their username outside of the hours you define. Simply drag the module from its default position over to the left of Username and click Save at the bottom.

 

You can now click on the edit icon inside the Logon Times module to configure the allowed/restricted times. Click the plus icon to add a new logon time.

 

You may add as many separate times/days as you wish to cover the hours that you want to allow access to the system. You can choose individual days, part weeks or the whole week from the left drop-down. Here we will choose Mon-Fri and set the hours from 9:00 to 17:00 in 24 hour format.

 

Optionally click the Message tab at the top where you can alter the message that is displayed to users. Click Apply to finish configuring the module.

 

2. Testing

As we have configured this scheme for Password Reset, to test this click on the Reset Password link on the main LogonBox portal.

 

When a user attempts to authenticate outside of the configured hours, they are denied access

 

When a user authenticates within the allowed hours, the Logon Times authentication happens transparently and the user immediately proceeds to the next step, in this case the prompt for the username.