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    Identity Engine limitations

    Identity Engine

    Okta Identity Engine introduces many changes to the Okta platform. Some of these changes result in a lack of support for previously available features. Also, some of these changes result in Identity Engine features not supported for use with Classic Engine APIs.

    Are you an admin? See the Identity Engine limitations (opens new window) doc for admins.

    Note: This doc is designed for people who are familiar with Classic Engine. If you're new to Okta and Identity Engine, see Get started (opens new window) with Identity Engine.

    Classic Engine features not supported in Identity Engine

    Custom sign-in page for embedded app links

    What Changed: Using a custom sign-in page for embedded app links isn't supported. Users who click an app embed link are now evaluated by their org's Okta sign-on policy. Admins can customize an Okta-hosted sign-in page or configure an IdP routing rule for the app.

    Further information: Configure a custom Okta-hosted sign-in page and Configure routing rules (opens new window)

    Event Type availability for event hooks

    What Changed: The following Event Types aren't available in Identity Engine because Device Trust isn't currently supported:

    • user.authentication.authenticate
    • user.credential.enroll

    The following Event Type isn't available in Identity Engine because it's no longer being triggered:

    user.account.unlock_token

    The following Event Types are available only in Identity Engine:

    • device.enrollment.create
    • user.mfa.factor.suspend
    • user.mfa.factor.unsuspend
    • security.authenticator.lifecycle.activated
    • security.authenticator.lifecycle.deactivate

    Further Information: Event Types

    Help Support number

    What Changed: In Identity Engine, if the user is unable to use an authenticator, the support number is no longer provided. The only support available is the authenticator list page that provides alternative ways for the user to authenticate.

    Reset Factor API - email enrollment

    What Changed: With Identity Engine, a user's verified primaryEmail is considered an email (authenticator) enrollment for the user. Therefore, the GET /factors API always returns the verified primaryEmail as an active email factor.

    Okta discourages the use of the Classic Engine Reset Factor operation for resetting a user's email enrollment. This is because email is an auto-enrolling authenticator in Identity Engine. A user's verified primaryEmail is always usable as long as the Email authenticator is set to ACTIVE. The user can use it for recovery only or for both authentication and recovery, depending on the Email authenticator settings.

    Reset Factor API - question enrollment

    What Changed: Identity Engine steers away from the notion of separate questions for MFA and recovery. Therefore, the GET /factors API now returns the recovery question (forgot password question) in the absence of an MFA Security Question enrollment for the user.

    In Classic Engine, when a user is using both the forgot password question and a Security Question for MFA, and an API call is made to v1/lifecycle/reset_factors to reset all the factors for the user, only the Security Question is reset. If the GET /factors API is called, the forgot password question isn't returned as a factor.

    In Identity Engine, after you reset all the factors, calling the GET /factors API returns the forgot password question in the response.

    Note: With Identity Engine, if a user is using both the forgot password question and a Security Question for MFA, and an API call is made to v1/lifecycle/reset_factors to reset all the factors for the user, just the Security Question is reset with that call. To reset the forgot password question after that first call, make a second call to /v1/lifecycle/reset_factors.

    Self-Service Registration

    What Changed: The Classic Engine Self-Service Registration feature isn't supported. The Identity Engine Self-Service Registration is now accomplished through a profile enrollment policy. In a profile enrollment policy, admins select the attributes they want to collect when a new end user clicks Sign up. After the end user is authenticated into the app, their profile is complete and they're provisioned to the appropriate groups.

    Note: The form for the profile enrollment policy only supports read-write attributes. If you added read-only or hidden attributes to your Self-Service Registration form in Classic Engine, they're not migrated to your profile enrollment policy.

    Further information: Manage Profile Enrollment policies (opens new window)

    Sessions APIs

    What Changed: Some Sessions APIs aren't supported in Identity Engine. However, your existing application could continue to work as long as session management and application interactions are fully contained within the v1/sessions APIs.

    Further Information: APIs not supported in Identity Engine sessions:

    • GET /api/v1/sessions/${sessionId}
    • POST /api/v1/sessions/${sessionId}/lifecycle/refresh
    • DELETE /api/v1/sessions/${sessionId}
    • POST /api/v1/users/me/lifecycle/delete_sessions
    • POST /api/v1/sessions?additionalFields=cookieToken

    Note: See Understand how sessions work after the upgrade.

    Session Token created before an Identity Engine upgrade prompts user for password after upgrade completes

    What Changed: If a user authenticates in Classic Engine (which creates a sessionToken), and the upgrade to Identity Engine completes while the sessionToken is valid (five minutes), then when a user attempts to access an OpenID Connect app after the upgrade, the user is prompted for their password again.

    Note: This scenario only happens during an upgrade from Classic Engine to Identity Engine. It doesn't continue to happen after the upgrade.

    SMS Factors Administration lifecycle operations

    What Changed: The SMS Factor can no longer be activated or deactivated using the Factors API (/api/v1/org/factors).

    Further Information: Factors Administration API

    The audience parameter in the Authentication API

    What Changed: Passing the audience parameter to the /api/v1/authn API isn't supported in Identity Engine because of the new flexible authentication policy that comes with Identity Engine. The Classic Engine pipeline doesn't support the flexible authentication policy.

    Further information: IdP-initiated step-up authentication

    Identity Engine features not supported with Classic Engine APIs

    Factor API enrollment limitations

    The following Identity Engine features aren't supported using the Factor APIs:

    • Enroll in multiple Okta Verify factors using the Factors API (opens new window). You can only use the Factors API to enroll the first Okta Verify factor.

    • Okta Verify authenticator settings aren't enforced when enrolling using the Factors API:

      • The FIPS compliance requirement for enrollments
      • The User Verification requirement for enrollments
      • New Okta Verify enrollments that are created with the Factors API aren't mapped to a device.
      • WebAuthn authenticator User Verification settings aren't enforced when enrolling using the Factors API.

    See the SDK use cases in our embedded SDK guides for more information on profile enrollment.

    Password recovery limitations with the Classic Authentication API

    Developers who use the /api/v1/authn APIs to build custom password reset and account unlock experiences can't use the new recovery options in Identity Engine. Specifically, if developers set a password policy rule to require Okta Verify Push for recovery or configure Any enrolled authenticator used for MFA/SSO for additional verification, end users who use the Classic Engine authentication APIs are denied recovery.

    Further information: Recovery operations section of the Authentication API.

    Okta Sign-In Widget upgrade

    For Identity Engine, some specific objects that were previously in the Sign-In Widget configuration are no longer supported and must be removed. Also, specific feature flags aren't supported when you upgrade the widget and must be removed from features in the JSON code. See Upgrade your Okta Sign-In Widget for a comprehensive list of configuration and feature changes.

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