Coming soon: Native Single Sign-On in Atlassian Crowd 7.1

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We’re excited to announce that Atlassian Crowd 7.1 will introduce a built-in Single Sign-On (SSO) capability, scheduled for release at the end of September 2025.

With this update, you’ll be able to integrate multiple Identity Providers directly with Crowd. This will allow Crowd to serve as the sole integration point with the IdP, acting as a bridge between the IdP and other Atlassian Data Center products.

This feature implements frequently requested support for SAML and Open ID Connect (CWD-5478, CWD-3995). We believe it will simplify your authentication setup by centralizing access management for all your Atlassian Data Center products through Crowd.

How will this impact customers using Entra ID directory integration?

As of today, Crowd offers an Entra ID integration that synchronizes users from Entra ID directories, enabling them to authenticate to Crowd. This feature requires disabling Entra ID’s Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

Microsoft has recently announced that Multi-Factor Authentication for Entra ID will be enforced for all customers. For this reason, all customers using this integration need to redesign their setups.

Update your Crowd configuration

Make sure to review your Crowd configuration and prepare for the new SSO feature. As the release approaches, we’ll provide more information and detailed documentation. Stay tuned for further updates!

Once MFA enforcement is fully in effect on your instance, it will be necessary to use SSO to authenticate users from Entra ID directories. The currently planned date for enforcing MFA is October 1st, 2025. If migration is not possible until that date, you can request an extension by following the steps at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/concept-mandatory-multifactor-authentication?tabs=java#request-more-time-to-prepare-for-phase-2-mfa-enforcement

Streamline authentication and MFA to simplify your future migration to Cloud

If you’re planning a Cloud migration or a temporary hybrid setup in the future, we highly recommend streamlining authentication and company-wide MFA:

1. Use your Cloud IDP solution as an MFA source.

2. Integrate it with Crowd to achieve proper SSO between all Atlassian products.

Other functionalities released in Crowd 7.1

In Crowd 7, we introduced Service Accounts - specialized, non-user accounts created for secure and efficient management of automated processes and external integrations. Admins could create, delete, and update Service Accounts only using the REST API.

Since Crowd 7.1, Service Accounts can be managed in the administration console.

Best,
The Crowd team