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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2023-01-18. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Using CAS

If you use Central Authentication Service (CAS) to centralize access to multiple web applications, you can integrate GitHub Enterprise Server by configuring CAS authentication for your instance.

About CAS authentication for GitHub Enterprise Server

CAS is a single sign-on (SSO) protocol that centralizes authentication to multiple web applications. For more information, see "Central Authentication Service" on Wikipedia.

After you configure CAS, people who use your GitHub Enterprise Server instance must use a personal access token to authenticate API or Git requests over HTTP(S). CAS credentials cannot be used to authenticate these requests. For more information, see "Creating a personal access token."

If you configure CAS, people with accounts on your identity provider (IdP) do not consume a user license until the person signs into your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

If you want to allow authentication for some people who don't have an account on your external authentication provider, you can allow fallback authentication to local accounts on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For more information, see "Allowing built-in authentication for users outside your provider."

Username considerations with CAS

GitHub Enterprise Server normalizes a value from your external authentication provider to determine the username for each new personal account on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For more information, see "Username considerations for external authentication."

CAS attributes

The following attributes are available.

Attribute nameTypeDescription
usernameRequiredThe GitHub Enterprise Server username.

Configuring CAS

  1. From an administrative account on GitHub Enterprise Server, in the upper-right corner of any page, click .

    Screenshot of the rocket ship icon for accessing site admin settings

  2. If you're not already on the "Site admin" page, in the upper-left corner, click Site admin.

    Screenshot of "Site admin" link

  3. In the left sidebar, click Management Console. Management Console tab in the left sidebar

  4. In the left sidebar, click Authentication. Authentication tab in the settings sidebar

  5. Select CAS.

    Screenshot of selection of CAS for authentication

  6. Optionally, to allow people without an account on your external authentication system to sign in with built-in authentication, select Allow built-in authentication. For more information, see "Allowing built-in authentication for users outside your provider."

    Screenshot of of fallback built-in authentication option for CAS

  7. In the Server URL field, type the full URL of your CAS server. If your CAS server uses a certificate that can't be validated by GitHub Enterprise Server, you can use the ghe-ssl-ca-certificate-install command to install it as a trusted certificate. For more information, see "Command-line utilities."