Do we need MFA for SSO?
Olivia House
Updated on February 21, 2026
No. If MFA is enabled for your SSO identity provider, you don't need to enable Salesforce's MFA for users who log in via SSO. But if you have admins or other privileged users who log in to your Salesforce products directly, you do need to set up Salesforce's MFA for these users.
Does SSO need MFA?
With SSO, that one passphrase is all a user has to remember. But of course, SSO means fewer potential entry points for hackers—and once they've cracked the code, the doors have opened to all the user's other accounts and applications. This is why requiring an additional authentication layer with MFA is so important.Is Salesforce MFA required for SSO?
Yes, the MFA requirement applies to all users who access a Salesforce product's user interface, whether by logging in directly or via SSO.Which is better SSO or MFA?
The Best of Both Worlds—Combining SSO and MFAMFA and SSO are both coming at the issue of security and authentication from different areas. SSO is more convenient for users but has higher inherent security risks. MFA is more secure but less convenient.
Can you combine SSO and MFA?
Combining MFA and SSO to get the best of both worldsUltimately the optimal solution is to combine MFA and SSO to increase perimeter security while simplifying authentication throughout the rest of the day.
Identity & Access Management | MFA | SSO | SAML | OAUTH | OpenID Connect
Is MFA needed?
Why is MFA Important? The main benefit of MFA is it will enhance your organization's security by requiring your users to identify themselves by more than a username and password. While important, usernames and passwords are vulnerable to brute force attacks and can be stolen by third parties.Is SSO two-factor authentication?
SSO is all about users gaining access to their resources with a single sign-on authentication. Two-factor authentication uses just two of these methods to verify and authorize a user's login attempts, whereas MFA uses two or more of these checkpoints.Is SAML considered MFA?
MFA using SAML configurationSAML can also be used to configure MFA between different devices. In an enterprise where we have different SPs used by multiple hosts. By using SAML we can enforce MFA in any of the below ways.
How does Salesforce implement MFA with SSO?
To set up the Salesforce MFA service, take these steps.
- In Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Session , then select Session Settings.
- In Session Security Levels, make sure your SSO configuration is in the Standard column. ...
- From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Profiles , then select Profiles.