Preview release notes

May 2023

2023.05.0: Monthly Preview release began deployment on May 11

* Features may not be available in all Okta Product SKUs.

Generally Available Features

Okta AD agent, version 3.15.0

This version of the agent contains the following changes:

  • Bug fixes. Active Directory (AD) agent auto-update health check caused auto-update to fail when upgrading from version 3.13.0 to 3.14.0.

See Okta Active Directory agent version history.

Okta On-Prem MFA agent, version 1.7.0

This version includes support for extended client session timeout. See Install the agent.

Confluence Authenticator, version 3.2.2

This release contains security fixes. See Okta Confluence Authenticator version history.

Okta Jira Authenticator, version 3.2.2

This release contains security fixes. See Okta Jira Authenticator Version History.

Multibrand customizations

Multibrand customizations allow customers to use one org to manage multiple brands and multiple custom domains. This drastically simplifies multi-tenant architectures where customers create multiple orgs to satisfy branding requirements. Multibrand customizations allow orgs to create up to three custom domains (more upon request), which can be mapped to multiple sign-in pages, multiple sets of emails, error pages, and multiple versions of the End-User Dashboard. See Branding.

Self-Service Okta Identity Engine Upgrades for eligible orgs

Okta is slowly rolling out self-service upgrade functionality to eligible orgs. Using the new self-service upgrade widget, orgs with acknowledgment action items can now review and complete those items, and then schedule their upgrade. When your org becomes eligible for the upgrade, you receive an email confirming your eligibility and the self-service upgrade widget appears on the Admin Dashboard. The upgrade is free, automatic, and has zero downtime. See Upgrade from Okta Classic Engine.

Note that only super admins can view and manage the self-service upgrade widget.

New upgrade warning

For self-service Identity Engine upgrades, a warning message now appears to indicate that the Classic Engine Sessions API isn't supported.

More events eligible for hooks

The following System Log events are now eligible for event hooks:

  • group.application_assignment.add

  • group.application_assignment.remove

  • group.application_assignment.update

New legal disclaimer in Okta Trial accounts

A new legal disclaimer is displayed on the Add Person dialog in Okta trial accounts to prevent sending unsolicited and unauthorized activation emails.

Okta branding changes for the Admin Console

Branding updates to headings, fonts, colors, borders, and logos are now available in the Admin Console.

Additional measures to counter toll fraud

For SMS and voice authentications, additional mitigation measures now help counter phone number-based toll fraud.

Early Access Features

Permission conditions for profile attributes

You can now apply conditions to the View users and their details and Edit users' profile attributes custom admin role permissions. Permission conditions help you limit the scope of a role by including or excluding admins' access to individual profile attributes. This gives you more granular control over your custom admin roles and helps meet your org’s unique security needs. See Permission conditions.

Assign admin roles to an app

Orgs can now assign admin roles to their custom API Service Integrations. Apps with assigned admin roles are constrained to the permissions and resources that are included in the role assignment. This helps ensure that apps only have access to the resources that are needed to perform their tasks, and improves orgs' overall security. See Work with the admin component.

Event hook filters

You can now filter individual events of the same event type based on custom business logic hosted in Okta. These filters reduce the amount of events that trigger hooks, removing an unnecessary load on your external service.

This feature includes an improved creation workflow for event hooks and a new Filters tab that you can use to create event filters with direct Expression Language statements or with a simple UI format.

Using event hook filters significantly reduces the amount of event hook requests and the need for custom code on your respective services. See Edit an event hook filter.

Fixes

  • OKTA-566113

    After changing the display language for an Okta org from English to another language, some text was still displayed in English.

  • OKTA-580684

    In the Okta Expression Language, the isMemberOfGroupNameContains expression couldn't differentiate underscores and hyphens, which caused unexpected user membership assignments.

  • OKTA-595053

    Users who clicked Back to sign in before setting up their security methods were incorrectly notified that their configuration was successful. This occurred only in orgs with custom domains.

  • OKTA-596360

    Locked out users could still authenticate and sign in through Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA).

  • OKTA-596600

    For apps with Group Push enabled, the Application Push Groups tab displayed incorrect dates and times.

  • OKTA-597396

    Pushing groups from Okta to Microsoft Office 365 sometimes failed if an empty group description was updated.

  • OKTA-599408

    GMT timezones couldn't be selected correctly in the System Log.

  • OKTA-600867

    The Yubikey Reports page wasn't properly translated.

  • OKTA-601875

    After a user was deactivated, their remaining tasks resulted in errors.

  • OKTA-603305

    On the Edit resource set page, an error appeared when an admin deleted a resource type and then added it again. This occurred when the redesigned resource editor feature was enabled.

  • OKTA-607249

    Service clients with the correct permissions couldn't modify policies that contained the Okta Administrator Group.

Applications

New Integrations

New SCIM Integration applications

The following partner-built provisioning integration apps are now Generally Available in the OIN Catalog:

SAML for the following Okta Verified applications

OIDC for the following Okta Verified applications

Weekly Updates

Facebook at Work integration enhancement

Facebook at Work uses the Okta Expression Language to map the manager attribute. This allows admins to adjust how the manager attribute is stored in the user profile so they can choose between an id field or a name.

Smart Card IdP with Agentless DSSO

Okta can now be configured to allow users to use Agentless DSSO without being prompted when Smart Card IdP is configured.

New App Drawer

The updated app settings panel on the Okta End-User Dashboard allows end users to see all app details in a single view without having to expand multiple sections. End users can quickly differentiate between SWA apps where they have set a username and password and SAML / OIDC apps that are admin-managed with no additional user settings. The updated app settings panel also provides accessibility improvements with better screen reader support and color contrast. See View the app settings page.

SSO apps dashboard widget

The new SSO apps widget displays the number of user sign-in events across each of your org’s apps over a selected period of time. You can use it to see which apps are used most frequently and to easily monitor the authentication activity across your org. See Monitor your apps.

Toggle password visibility on the Okta Sign-In page

End users can now toggle visibility of their password on the Sign-In Widget, allowing them to check their password before they click Sign In. Note that passwords are visible for 30 seconds and then hidden automatically. See Authentication. See Delegated authentication.

Email failure events in the System Log

Admins can now view email delivery failure events in the System Log. This helps admins better monitor the email event activity in their org. See System Log.

Federation Broker Mode

The new Federation Broker Mode allows Okta SSO without the need to pre-assign apps to specific users. Access is managed only by the authentication policy and the authorization rules of each app. This mode can improve import performance and can be helpful for larger-scale orgs that manage many users and apps. See Manage Federation Broker Mode.

User Import Scheduling

When importing users from an app to Okta, you can now schedule imports to occur at hourly, daily, or weekly intervals. Scheduling imports at a time that is convenient for your org reduces the likelihood of service disruptions and eliminates the need to start imports manually. If an application allows incremental imports, you can create both full and incremental import schedules. This is a self-service feature. See Edit app provisioning settings.

Choose additional filters for Office 365 sign-on policy

Filters have been added to enable admins to distinguish between web browsers and Modern Authentication clients when creating an app sign-on policy. See Office 365 sign-on rules options.

Device Authorization grant type

Advancements in internet technology have seen an explosion of smart devices and the Internet of Things. Consumers need to sign in to applications that run on these devices, but the devices either lack support for a web browser or have limited ability for input, such as smart TVs, car consoles, and thermostats. As a result, users resort to insecure authentication solutions that are error-prone and time-consuming.

The Device Authorization grant feature is an OAuth 2.0 grant type that allows users to sign in to input-constrained devices and also to devices that lack web browsers. This feature enables users to use a secondary device, such as a laptop or mobile phone, to complete sign-in to applications that run on such devices. See Configure Device Authorization.

Null values for SCIM provisioning

Null values for any attribute type can now be submitted to Okta when using SCIM provisioning. This change reduces the error messages customers receive and simplifies end user identity management. See Manage profiles.

Manage admin email notification subscriptions using API endpoints

Admins can manage email subscriptions using the Admin Email Subscription API endpoints.

  • Super admins can configure default subscription settings by admin type.

  • All admins can manage their own admin email notification subscriptions.

End-User Dashboard and Plugin redesign

The Okta End-User Dashboard and Okta Browser Plugin have been redesigned with a modern look and feel that includes new sidebar navigation, fuzzy search, and sections that replaces tabs.

Okta End-User Dashboard redesign

Okta End-User Dashboard redesign

Admins can enable this new design all at once or by groups. The new experience is 50% faster, more intuitive to use, and more responsive to smaller screens. Design changes also improve accessibility and app discovery for end users.

See Create sign-on policies with Okta Applications.

This feature will gradually be made available to all Preview orgs.

Workflows Templates available

Workflows Templates is now available, providing users with access to a searchable catalog of installable Flows that address many common use cases. See Get started with Workflows Templates.

LDAP password reset option

LDAP delegated authentication settings can now be configured to allow users to reset their passwords. This change reduces the time needed for password management and allows users to reset their passwords quickly and easily. See Delegated authentication.

LDAP admin password reset

For orgs integrated with LDAP, admins can now perform password resets for an active individual end user. See Reset a user password.

Windows Device Registration Task, version 1.4.1

This release fixed the following issues:

  • If there was a space in the sAMAccountName, an error appeared when installing the Okta Device Registration task and the installation completed but didn't function.
  • An unknown publisher warning appeared after double-clicking the Okta Device Registration MSI file.

Affected customers should uninstall the registration task and install 1.4.1 or later.

See Enforce Okta Device Trust for managed Windows computers and Device Trust for Windows Desktop Registration Task Version History.

Incremental Imports for CSV

Incremental imports improve performance by importing only users who were created, updated, or deleted since your last import. See Manage your CSV directory integration. Note that this feature is being re-released having previously been released to Production in 2020.09.0.

Password changed notification email

To eliminate unnecessary email notifications, the Password changed notification email setting is no longer enabled by default on new preview orgs. See Password changed notification for end users.

Office 365 Silent Activation

Using Okta as the Identity Provider, Okta Office 365 Silent Activation allows for a seamless experience for your Microsoft Office 365 end users accessing Office 365 apps on domain joined shared Workstations or VDI environments. Once your end users have logged into a domain-joined Windows machine, no further activation steps are required. See Office 365 Silent Activation: New Implementations.

End-user Welcome emails localized

The ability to localize the Welcome email that Okta sends to new end users by referencing the users' default locale property is now Generally Available. See Configure general customization settings.

People page improvements

The People page has been improved so the people list can be filtered by user type. See Universal Directory custom user types known issues.

Mobile tab available for mobile-capable apps

The Mobile tab available in the Okta Admin Console for mobile-capable OIN apps allows you to publish mobile applications to an App Store and deploy them to your end users.

See Enable access to managed mobile apps

Provisioning page UI element change

Drop-down menus on the Provisioning page (General Settings) were standardized.

UI element change

Drop-down menus on the Provisioning page (General Settings) are standardized. See Provision applications.

Early Access features, auto-enroll

You can now opt to auto-enroll in all Early Access features, instead of having to enable them as they become available. For more information, see Manage Early Access features.

Connecting Apps to Okta using the LDAP Interface

The LDAP Interface allows you to authenticate legacy LDAP apps to Universal Directory in the cloud. With the LDAP Interface, authentication is done directly against Okta via LDAP, without the need for an on-premise LDAP server. In addition, the LDAP interface supports other LDAP functions like search. See Set up and manage the LDAP Interface.