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Okta Integration Guide (Identity Management Provider)

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The Okta integration enables security, IT, and compliance teams to automate identity management and, optionally, user access reviews. It connects Drata to your Okta tenant so your team can sync workforce identities, enforce MFA, and centralize access review evidence for audits.

Key Capabilities

  • Identity & Access Management (IdP): Syncs users, groups, and role assignments from Okta into Drata to support provisioning, deprovisioning, and IdP monitoring.

  • Access Review (Optional): Once connected, you can toggle on Access Reviews within the Okta IdP connection to automate user access review workflows using Okta data.

  • Audit & Evidence Collection: Captures identity metadata, MFA configuration, and account status to provide audit-ready evidence for compliance reviews.

This integration is used to automate tests such as MFA on Identity Provider (Test 86), Employees Have Unique Email Accounts (Test 96).

Prerequisites & Data Access

In Okta

  • Sign in with an Okta account that has the Organization Owner role.

  • Copy your Okta organization domain. You’ll use this when connecting Okta to Drata.

  • Create an Okta API key.

    • We’ll show you how to do this later in the guide.

  • Install and configure the Drata Okta App with the okta.users.read.self scope, then copy the Client ID and Client Secret shown after setup.

    • We’ll walk you through this later in the guide.

  • Ensure the email field on each Okta user profile is set to at least Read Only.

    • Drata uses this field for syncing personnel records and for login authentication.

    • We’ll cover this later in the guide.

  • Verify that all user email domains match. To sync multiple domains, contact Drata Technical Support.

  • Avoid using nested groups in Okta. Drata syncs members from top-level groups only, not from subgroups.

Optional Requirements

  • Copy your custom authorization domain if your organization uses a custom URL domain for the authorization server.

  • Copy the group labels you want to include if you plan to sync specific user groups.

Additional Notes

  • Connect one Okta group at a time.

    • Attempting to connect multiple groups simultaneously will cause the connection to fail.

  • For customers with existing Okta SSO connections:

    • If your Drata tenant previously used the Enterprise SSO connector, disconnect it before using the new Sign in with Okta option.

    • Otherwise, continue using the original Sign in with SSO connection.

  • If you don’t use an HRIS integration:

    • Drata uses the Okta user profile creation date as the hire date by default.

    • To override this behavior, you can add two custom attributes in Okta:

      • drataStartDate (string): Tracks employee start date.

      • drataContractor (boolean): Identifies whether the user is a contractor or employee.

    • Drata automatically recognizes these attributes, eliminating the need to manually update personnel records.

    • Note: Separation date isn’t currently supported. The separation date remains the date the Okta user profile was deactivated.

Permissions & Data Table

Permission/Scope

Why It’s Needed

Data Accessed (Read Only)

okta.users.read.self (granted to the Drata application you created in Okta)

Allows Drata to read the profile of the user who logs in via Okta, enabling single sign-on (SSO) and proper identity sync for that user.

The authenticated user’s profile attributes (for example: email, name, user ID).

Note: This scope does not allow reading other users’ profiles.

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Verify the email field permission in Okta

The email field must be set to at least Read Only so Drata can sync personnel data and authenticate users correctly.

  1. Sign in to Okta as an administrator.

  2. In the side navigation, select Directory > Profile Editor.

  3. Open the Users tab, then select User (default) under the Profile tab.

  4. Scroll to the Primary email field and select the info icon ℹ️ next to it.

  5. Review the User permission configurations and confirm it is set to Read Only or higher.

If this field is set to Hide, Drata can’t read user emails for login or personnel sync.

Step 2: Copy your Okta Organization Domain

  1. From your Okta dashboard, copy your Okta organization domain.

  2. You’ll paste this value into the Organization field in Drata’s Okta connection drawer later in the setup.

Step 3: Create a service account

You’ll now create a service account in Okta and assign the Read-only Administrator role.

  1. Sign in to Okta as an administrator.

  2. Go to Directory > People, then select Add Person.

  3. Create the new service account that will be used to connect Drata. Then, Assign the Read-only Administrator role to that account:

    • Go to Security > Administrators > Add Administrator.

    • Select the service account you created.

    • Assign the Read-only Administrator role and save changes.

Step 4: Generate an API token

  1. Log in as the service account you just created.

  2. Go to Security > API > Tokens > Create Token.

  3. Generate a new API token.

  4. Copy the token immediately and save it securely (for example, in a password manager).

    • This is the only time you can view it.

    • You’ll paste it into the API Key field in Drata later.

Important: Treat the API token like a password. It provides administrative access to Okta data.

Step 5: Install the Drata Okta OIN App

  1. Log in to Okta as a Super Administrator.

  2. Go to Applications > Browse App Catalog.

  3. Search for Drata.

  4. Select Drata – OIDC under Integrations and click Add.

  5. Open the installed app and select the Sign On tab.

  6. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret displayed there.

    • You’ll add these to the corresponding fields in Drata’s Okta connection drawer later.

  7. Open the Okta API Scopes tab.

  8. Scroll down to okta.users.read.self and click Grant to enable this scope.

  9. Assign the Drata OIN app to users who should have SSO access to Drata:

    • Go to Applications > Drata – OIDC > Assignments.

    • Select the users or groups who should have access.

SSO options supported:

  • IdP-initiated SSO: Users can launch Drata directly from the Okta dashboard.

  • SP-initiated SSO: Users can start from the Drata login page and authenticate through Okta.

Complete the connection in Drata

  1. In Drata, go to Connections > Identity Providers > Okta.

  2. Enter the following values from your Okta setup:

Drata Field

Okta Value

Organization

Okta organization domain

Custom URL Domain (Optional)

The custom URL domain your organization uses to access its Okta authorization server.

API Key

The Okta API token generated from your service account.

Group Label (Optional)

The group label in Okta for the specific user group you want to sync.

Application Client ID

From the Drata OIN App

Application Client Secret

From the Drata OIN App

For steps on accessing and using the Connections page in Drata, refer toThe Connections Page in Drata.

(Optional) Enable User Access Review

Note: The Okta IdP connection is required before you can use Okta as your User Access Review source.

You can toggle on User Access Review within the same connection. No additional setup is required unless you want to use a custom admin role for least-privilege access. For detailed steps to configure the User Access Review connection, refer to Okta Integration Guide (User Access Review).

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