Technical Guide

AAA and Port Authentication

Feature Overview and Configuration Guide

Introduction
This guide describes the AlliedWare Plus implementation of Authentication, Accounting and
Authorization. Port Authentication commands enable you to specify three different types of device
authentication: 802.1X authentication, web authentication, and MAC authentication.

802.1X is an IEEE standard providing a mechanism for authenticating devices attached to a LAN
port or wireless device. Web authentication is applicable to devices that have a human user who
opens the web browser and types in a user name and password when requested. MAC
authentication is used to authenticate devices that have neither a human user nor implement 802.1X
supplicant when making a network connection request.

Products and software version that apply to this guide

This guide applies to all AlliedWare Plus™ products, running version 5.4.6 or later.

Feature support may change in later software versions. For the latest information, see the following
documents:

 The product’s Datasheet

 The product’s Command Reference

These documents are available from the above links on our website at alliedtelesis.com.

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The following features are supported since the following software versions:

 DHCP Framed IP Lease - 5.4.8-2.x

 MAC authentication available on AR series devices - 5.4.8-2.x

 802.1X authentication available on AR series device switch ports - 5.4.9-2.x

 Dynamic ACL assignments with port authentication - 5.5.0-1.x

 Authentication priority for tri-authentication - 5.5.0-2.x

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Authentication Methods on Security Appliances

The AR2010V, AR2050V, AR3050S, and AR4050S security appliances support limited port
authentication methods. The AR1050V does not support any port authentication methods.

Table 1: Security appliance port authentication support

Device Port type Authentication methods Supported from version

AR1050V Switch ports none -
Ethernet port none -
AR2010V* Ethernet port Web authentication 5.4.5-2.1
AR2050V Switch ports MAC authentication 5.4.8-2.1
AR3050S 802.1X authentication 5.4.9-2.1
AR4050S
Ethernet ports Web authentication 5.4.5-2.1

*The AR2010V only has Ethernet ports.

Two-step authentication is supported on the devices that have switch ports. When two-step
authentication is enabled the sequence is MAC authentication first followed by 802.1X
authentication.

Tri-authentication is not supported on these devices as all three authentication methods are not
available on the same port type. However, if both MAC authentication and 802.1X authentication are
configured on a port and two-step authentication is disabled then the supplicant will be
authenticated if either authentication method is successful.

802.1X authentication on security appliances

The following limitations apply to 802.1X authentication on these devices:

 802.1X authentication is not supported on static channel-groups and dynamic (LACP) channel-
groups.

 Dynamic VLAN assignment can only be configured per port and not per MAC address. This
means that all supplicants on a port can only be dynamically assigned to the same VLAN.
Different VLANS, however, can be assigned on different ports. (See the auth dynamic-vlan-
creation command for more information on dynamic VLANs.)

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Contents
Introduction .........................................................................................................................................1
Products and software version that apply to this guide ...............................................................1

Authentication Methods on Security Appliances ................................................................................3

802.1X authentication on security appliances ..............................................................................3

Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) ..........................................................................6

Introduction...................................................................................................................................6
Available functions and server types ............................................................................................6
Server groups ...............................................................................................................................7
Method lists ..................................................................................................................................8
Processing authentication requests............................................................................................11
Configuring AAA login authentication .........................................................................................13
Sample authentication configurations ........................................................................................14

802.1X Authentication .......................................................................................................................19

Introduction.................................................................................................................................19
Basic steps in 802.1X configuration ...........................................................................................22
802.1X VLAN assignment ...........................................................................................................25
Verify the operation of 802.1X.....................................................................................................31

Web Authentication ...........................................................................................................................32

Introduction.................................................................................................................................32
What is web authentication? ......................................................................................................32
Configuring web authentication..................................................................................................34
Starting a web authentication session........................................................................................36
Understanding the web authentication features.........................................................................37
Customising the login page ........................................................................................................41
Setting the intercept port number...............................................................................................49
Secure authentication .................................................................................................................49
Ping-poll monitoring of supplicant presence ..............................................................................51
Checking the auth-web-server status ........................................................................................52
Checking the IP addresses of the supplicants ...........................................................................53
Idle time-out................................................................................................................................53
Monitoring the operation of web authentication.........................................................................55
Configuration example: Guest VLAN and URL redirection .........................................................56
What does the user experience? ................................................................................................58

MAC Authentication ..........................................................................................................................59

Why is MAC authentication required? ........................................................................................59
How does MAC authentication work? ........................................................................................59
Configuring MAC authentication.................................................................................................60

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Tri-authentication...............................................................................................................................61
Tri-authentication configuration ..................................................................................................61
Authentication priority for tri-authentication ...............................................................................62

Two-step Authentication ...................................................................................................................64

Two-step authentication example...............................................................................................64
Two-step authentication order example .....................................................................................65

Ensuring Authentication Methods Require Different Usernames and Passwords ............................67

Roaming Authentication ....................................................................................................................68

Roaming authentication overview...............................................................................................69
Roaming authentication feature interactions ..............................................................................70

Unauthenticated Supplicant Traffic ...................................................................................................71

Deciding when a supplicant fails authentication ........................................................................73
Failed authentication VLAN ........................................................................................................73
Limitations on allowed feature combinations .............................................................................75

Single Supplicant on Multiple VLANs................................................................................................76

Configuring packet forwarding on multiple VLANs.....................................................................76

Port Authentication Profiles...............................................................................................................77

What are port authentication profiles..........................................................................................77
Using port authentication profiles...............................................................................................77

DHCP Framed IP Lease ....................................................................................................................81

Introduction.................................................................................................................................81
How does DHCP Framed IP Lease work?..................................................................................81
Configuring DHCP Framed IP Lease ..........................................................................................82
Configuration example................................................................................................................83
Monitoring your configuration.....................................................................................................85

Dynamic ACL Assignments with Port Authentication .......................................................................87

Introduction.................................................................................................................................87
How does this feature work? ......................................................................................................87
Configuring Dynamic ACL assignments. ....................................................................................88
Considerations when using Dynamic ACLs................................................................................89
Configuration example................................................................................................................90
Monitoring your configuration.....................................................................................................91

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Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA)

Introduction
AAA is the collective title for the three related functions of Authentication, Authorization and
Accounting. These functions can be applied in a variety of methods with a variety of servers. The
purpose of the AAA commands is to map instances of the AAA functions to sets of servers.

The Authentication function can be performed in multiple contexts, such as authentication of users
logging in at a console, or 802.1X authentication of devices connecting to Ethernet ports.

For each of these contexts, you may want to use different sets of servers for examining the proffered
authentication credentials and deciding if they are valid. AAA Authentication commands enable you
to specify which servers will be used for different types of authentication.

Available functions and server types

The three types of servers that can be used for Authentication, Authorization and Accounting are:

 Local user database

 RADIUS servers

 TACACS+ servers

Authentication decides whether the client is allowed access and is performed in the following
contexts:

 Login authentication of user shell sessions on the console port, and via Telnet/SSH

 Enable password authentication for user shell sessions on the console port, and via Telnet/SSH
(TACACS+ or local user database only)

 802.1X authentication of devices connecting to switch ports

 MAC authentication of devices connecting to switch ports

 Web-based authentication of devices connecting to switch ports

Authorization decides what level of access a client is allowed, i.e. what services are they allowed to
use. In AlliedWare Plus, authorization is performed as part of the login authentication process and
there are no separate authorization commands available. Authorization is performed in the following
context:

 Login authentication of user shell sessions on the console port, and via Telnet/SSH

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Accounting keeps a record of the client’s session and collects statistics on their data usages, it is
performed in the following contexts:

 Console, Telnet, and SSH login sessions

 Commands executed within user shell sessions (TACACS+ only)

 802.1X authenticated connections

 MAC authenticated connections

 Web authenticated connections

Different servers might be used for different activities. A network might use RADIUS for 802.1X
authentication, but TACACS+ for authenticating users logging into the management interfaces of the
device itself.

Server groups
The two protocols most commonly used for Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting are
RADIUS and TACACS+. When using these protocols, the device will exchange data with a RADIUS
or TACACS+ server.

 For authentication, the device will send user credentials to a RADIUS or TACACS+ server, and
listen for the server’s response to those credentials.

 For accounting, the device sends accounting messages to the server, and the server uses those
to accumulate usage records of network services.

For redundancy purposes, a network will often contain more than one RADIUS or TACACS+ server.

To enable a set of servers to be conveniently referenced from AAA commands, the concept of a
server group has been introduced to the device command line.

Configuring server groups

A server group is defined by the command aaa group server. This command puts you into server
group configuration mode. Once in that mode you can add servers to the group by using the
command server ip-address.

Any number of servers can be added to a group. Typically, you will add servers which have already
been configured by the command radius-server host. If you add a server that has not yet been
configured by the command radius-server host, you will receive a warning that the server has not
yet been configured, but the command will still be accepted.

There is one server group, named radius, that is always present on the device. This group cannot be
removed and contains all servers that have been configured using the command radius-server
host. As soon as a server is configured by the command radius-server host, it is automatically a
member of the server group radius and cannot be removed from it.

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Note: While it is possible to create named server groups for RADIUS servers, there is no equivalent
feature for TACACS+ servers. For TACACS+, the only server group is the default group, that
contains all the TACACS+ servers configured on the device.

The show radius server group command displays information about the RADIUS server groups
configured on a device.

Method lists
A method list defines the set of server types that you want to be used for authenticating or
accounting a user or device. It also specifies the order in which you want the server types to be
used.

You may want to:

 Check the usernames submitted for logging in at the console are in the local user database. You
can create a method list that specifies local.

 Or, check the TACACS+ servers first, and resort to the local user database if none of the
TACACS+ servers respond. You can create a method list that specifies group TACACS+ first,
followed by local.

 Or, check the RADIUS servers first, and resort to the local user database if none of the RADIUS
servers respond. You can create a method list that specifies group RADIUS first, followed by
local.

A method list defines the servers where authentication requests are sent. The first server listed is
contacted; if that server fails to respond then the next authentication server type in the method list is
selected. This process continues until there is a successful response or until all server types fail to
respond.

In the case of a user logging into the device, the device sends an authentication request to the first
authentication server in the method list:

 If the first server in the list is reachable and it contains a username and password matching the
authentication request, the user is authenticated and the login succeeds.

 If the authentication server denies the authentication request because of an incorrect username
or password, the user login fails.

 If the first server in the method list is unreachable, the device sends the request to the next server
in the list, and so on.

For example, if the method list specifies group tacacs+ local, and a user attempts to log in with a
password that does not match a user entry in the first TACACS+ server, this TACACS+ server denies
the authentication request, then the device does not try any other TACACS+ servers nor the local
user database; the user login fails.

If the first server type in the method list is a server group containing multiple servers, then all servers
in the group are tried before moving on to the next server type in the method list.

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The details of how requests are retried progressively through a group of servers are described in
"Checking multiple authentication servers" on page 11.

Configuring method lists

Within AlliedWare Plus, it is possible to create method lists for two types of activities:

 authentication

 accounting

The method lists for these two activities can be created for four different contexts:

 802.1X

 MAC-based authentication

 Web-based authentication

 Device management session login

In addition to the default method list it is possible to create any number of other, named, method
lists for all four contexts.

For 802.1X, MAC-auth and web-auth, the method available for authentication is RADIUS and it is
necessary to define which RADIUS server group is being used.

Default method lists

For every authentication or accounting type, it is always possible to define a method list called
default.

As soon as the default method list is defined for a given authentication or accounting type, it is
automatically applied as the method list to be used for any instance of that type of authentication or
accounting, except for instances to which another named method list has already been specifically
applied.

Authentication method lists

The commands to create an authentication method list for 802.1X, MAC-auth, and web-auth are:

awplus(config)# aaa authentication dot1x {default|<list-name>} group

{<group-name>|radius}
awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-mac {default|<list-name>} group
{<group-name>|radius}
awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-web {default|<list-name>} group
{<group-name>|radius}

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Points to note:
 For any one of these authentication types, the authentication will not operate until the either the
default or a named method authentication method list has been defined.

 The commands above effectively enable those three authentication types.

 If the server group radius is chosen, then all the RADIUS servers configured on the device will be
available to the authentication method.

For authentication of the login to management sessions on the device, the local method is available,
as well as RADIUS and TACACS+.

So, the syntax of the command for creating a login method list is:

awplus(config)# aaa authentication login {default|<list-name>}

{[local][group {radius|tacacs+|<group-name>}]}

Accounting method lists

The command for creating an accounting method list for 802.1X, auth-MAC, or auth-web is:

awplus(config)# aaa accounting <context> {default|<list-name>} {start-

stop|stop-only|none} {group {radius|<group-name>}}

where <context> is one of dot1x, auth-mac, or auth-web.

Management login session method lists are configured with the following command:

awplus(config)# aaa accounting login {default|<list-name>}{start-stop|

stop-only|none} {group {radius|<group-name>}}

The method list definition also defines whether the device will send accounting start and/or stop
messages or neither. There is a separate command aaa accounting update that controls whether
or not RADIUS accounting update messages will be sent. This is a global command, so it controls
the action of all accounting sessions, regardless of which method list they are controlled by.

Applying named method lists for port authentication

You apply a named method lists to an interface from that interface’s configuration mode. The
command to enter the configuration mode for an interface is:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface <interface-name>

Once in the interface configuration mode apply an authentication method list to the interface with
the command:

awplus(config-if)# <context> authentication {default|<list-name>}

or apply an accounting method list to the interface with the command:

awplus(config-if)# <context> accounting {default|<list-name>}

where <context> is one of dot1x, auth-mac, or auth-web.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

The show aaa server group command lists the AAA servers and any method lists associated with
them.

Applying login method lists

The types of management session to which method lists can be applied are:

 Console sessions on the device’s RS-232 port

 Remote CLI sessions via Telnet

 Remote CLI sessions via SSH

The method lists are applied to these session types by configuring the login method on the virtual
interfaces via which these sessions access the device.

The virtual interfaces are configured via the line command. The command to enter configuration
mode for the console virtual interface is:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# line console 0

The command to enter configuration mode for the Telnet/SSH virtual interface is:

awplus(config)# line vty 0 4

Note: Telnet and SSH both use the same set of vty lines.

Within the interface configuration mode for these virtual interfaces, the command to apply an
authentication method list is:

awplus(config-line)# login authentication <method list name>

To configure Telnet/SSH to use a RADIUS group ‘trust’, then check the local database, configure as

awplus(config)# aaa authentication login remote-login group trust local

awplus(config)# line vty 0 4
awplus(config-line)# login authentication remote-login

Processing authentication requests

Checking multiple authentication servers
The logic by which a set of servers is checked is as follows:

1. The authentication request is sent to the first server in the list.

2. If the server responds (either to accept or reject the authentication request), no more servers are
contacted.

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3. If the server does not respond, the device waits for timeout period. The timeout period defaults
to 5 seconds, but can be configured, on a per-server basis, to a different value with the
commands:

awplus(config)# radius-server host <ip-address> timeout <timeout>

awplus(config)# tacacs-server timeout <seconds>

In the case of RADIUS, if no response is received within this time, then:

 the authentication request is sent to the server again.

 the device again waits for the timeout period.

This cycle is repeated a number of times. By default, this number is 3, but can be configured, on a
per-server basis, to a different value with the command:

awplus(config)# radius-server host <ip-address> retransmit <number of

retries>

4. If a full set of retries has been sent to a server, and still no response has been received, then the
device gives up on that server. It moves on to the next server in the group, and sends the request
to that server. This process continues until a response has been received, or until all servers have
been tried, and none has responded.

Figure 1: Processing authentication requests

1) Request

Number of retries 2) Wait timeout period

configurable for 3) Request
this server
4) Wait timeout period
5) Request
6) Wait timeout period Server 1

If no response, move on to trying Server 2

1) Request
Number of retries
2) Wait timeout period
configurable for
this server 3) Request
4) Wait timeout period
Server 2

In the case of TACACS+, if no response is received from the first attempt, the server is considered
dead. This is because TACACS+ uses TCP which is a full connection protocol, if a connection
cannot be established there is no purpose in retrying.

It is important to note that if a server's database does not contain a particular username, then it will
respond with a reject message. The process of checking a series of servers is not a matter of looking
for the server that knows of a user; it is just a matter of looking for a server that responds. A reject
response is as valid as an accept response. As soon as the device receives ANY response from a
server, it will not check with any more servers in the group.

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Configuring AAA login authentication

To configure AAA authentication, create the default method list or a named method list for different
authentication types. In the case of login authentication, the named method lists are then applied to
consoles or VTY lines.

AAA configuration tasks

To define how a given accounting or authentication type is applied to a given port or line:

 (optionally) create a server group using the aaa group server command (RADIUS only),

 create a method list for the authentication or accounting type as required,

 then apply that method list to the port or line as required.

Step 1: Define a group of RADIUS servers

Create a RADIUS server group named GROUP1 with hosts 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1 and
192.168.3.1, use the commands:

awplus(config)# aaa group server radius GROUP1

awplus(config-sg)# server 192.168.1.1 auth-port 1812 acctport 1813
awplus(config-sg)# server 192.168.2.1 auth-port 1812 acctport 1813
awplus(config-sg)# server 192.168.3.1 auth-port 1812 acctport 1813

Step 2: Specify the login authentication or accounting method list

Create a method list for the authentication (aaa authentication login) or accounting (aaa accounting
login) type as required.

To configure a user login authentication method list called USERS to first use the RADIUS servers in
the group GROUP1 for user login authentication and then the local user database, use the following
commands:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# aaa authentication login USERS group GROUP1 local
To configure RADIUS accounting for login shell sessions, use the following commands:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# aaa accounting login USERS group GROUP1

Step 3: Apply method lists to interface port or line

Apply that method list to the port or line as required:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# line console 0
awplus(config-line)# login authentication USERS
awplus(config-line)# accounting login USERS

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Sample authentication configurations

Sample 802.1X authentication configuration

The configuration below shows an example configuration for dot1x authentication, using the local
RADIUS server.

!
radius-server host 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
!
aaa authentication dot1x default group radius
!
radius-server local
server enable
nas 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
user guest password guest!
!
no spanning-tree rstp enable
!
interface port1.0.1
dot1x port-control auto
!
interface vlan1
ip address 192.168.1.120/24
!

The 802.1X authentication feature needs the aaa authentication dot1x command configured
globally and the dot1x port-control command configured on an interface. See the CLI reference for
command information to edit this configuration.

The local RADIUS Server has been configured to respond to authentication requests generated by
802.1X authentication in this sample configuration. See the radius-server local and server enable
commands in the CLI reference for command information.

This sample configuration enables 802.1X authentication on interface VLAN1 which has IP address
192.168.1.120. Change the VLAN ID and IP address as required for your configuration.

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Sample MAC authentication configuration

The configuration below shows an example configuration for MAC authentication, using the local
RADIUS server.

!
radius-server host 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
!
aaa authentication auth-mac default group radius
!
radius-server local
server enable
nas 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
user 00-d0-59-ab-70-37 password 00-d0-59-ab-70-37
!
no spanning-tree rstp enable
!
interface port1.0.1
auth-mac enable
!
interface vlan1
ip address 192.168.1.120/24
!

The MAC authentication feature needs the aaa authentication auth-mac command configured
globally and the auth-mac enable command configured on an interface.

The local RADIUS server has been configured to use MAC authentication in this sample
configuration. For information on the commands used in this configuration, see the CLI reference.

This configuration enables MAC authentication on VLAN1 which has IP address 192.168.1.120.
Change the interface VLAN ID, MAC, and IP addresses as needed in your configuration.

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Sample web authentication configuration

The configuration below shows an example configuration for web authentication, using the local
RADIUS server.

!
radius-server host 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
!
aaa authentication auth-web default group radius
!
radius-server local
server enable
nas 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
user guest encrypted password l+lWcLjLm29bCAXwWRPHXK0PFlsA7gNpR+P7wO4kwQQ=
!
no spanning-tree rstp enable
!
interface port1.0.1
auth-web enable
!
interface vlan1
ip address 192.168.1.120/24
!

The web authentication feature needs the aaa authentication auth-web command configured
globally and the auth-web enable command configured on an interface. See the AAA Commands
and Authentication Commands chapters in the CLI reference, for information to edit this sample
configuration.

The local RADIUS Server has been configured to use web authentication in this sample
configuration. See the radius-server local and server enable commands in the Local RADIUS
Server Commands chapter in the CLI reference, for command information to edit this sample
configuration.

Note: The above sample web authentication configuration requires the user name ‘guest’ with
password ‘guest!’ on IP address 192.168.1.120 from interface port1.0.1.

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Sample configuration using a named method list

The configuration script below is a sample web authentication configuration which makes use of a
named method list and server group.

!
radius-server host 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
aaa group server radius GROUP1
!
aaa authentication auth-web USERS group GROUP1
!
radius-server local
server enable
nas 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
user guest password guest!
!
no spanning-tree rstp enable
!
interface port1.0.1
auth-web authentication USERS
auth-web enable
!
interface vlan1
ip address 192.168.1.120/24
!

The web authentication feature needs the aaa authentication auth-web and the auth-web enable
commands configured on an interface. See the AAA Commands and Authentication Commands
chapters in the CLI reference, for information to edit this sample configuration.

The local RADIUS Server has been configured to use web authentication in this sample
configuration. See the radius-server local and server enable commands in the Local RADIUS
Server Commands chapter in the CLI reference, for command information to edit this sample
configuration.

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Sample tri-authentication configuration

The sample configuration script below is a sample tri-authentication configuration that configures
802.1X authentication, MAC authentication, and web authentication on the same interface.

!
radius-server host 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
!
aaa authentication dot1x default group radius
aaa authentication auth-mac default group radius
aaa authentication auth-web default group radius
!
radius-server local
server enable
nas 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-server
user guest password guest!
user 00-d0-59-ab-70-37 password 00-d0-59-ab-70-37
!
no spanning-tree rstp enable
!
interface port1.0.1
dot1x port-control auto
auth-mac enable
auth-web enable
!
interface vlan1
ip address 192.168.1.120/24
!

The 802.1X authentication feature needs the aaa authentication dot1x command configured
globally and the dot1x port-control command configured on an interface. See the AAA and 802.1X
Commands chapters in the CLI reference for command information to edit this configuration.

The MAC authentication feature needs the aaa authentication auth-mac command configured
globally and the auth-mac enable command configured on an interface. See the AAA and
Authentication Commands chapters in the CLI reference for command information to edit this
configuration.

The web authentication feature needs the aaa authentication auth-web command configured
globally and the auth-web enable command configured on an interface. See the AAA and
Authentication Commands chapters in the CLI reference for command information to edit this
configuration.

The local RADIUS Server has been configured to use tri-authentication in this sample configuration.
See the radius-server local and server enable commands in the Local RADIUS Server Commands
chapter for command information to edit this sample configuration.

This sample tri-authentication configuration requires a user name ‘guest’ with password ‘guest!’ on
IP address 192.168.1.120 from port1.0.1. Note this sample also configures 802.1X- and MAC
authentication on VLAN1 which has IP address 192.168.1.120. Change the interface VLAN ID, MAC
and IP address as needed for your configuration.

Note: When tri-authentication is applied to the same interface, then the order of execution is MAC
authentication first, then 802.1X or web authentication, if MAC authentication fails.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

802.1X Authentication

Introduction
802.1X is an IEEE standard providing a mechanism for authenticating devices attached to a LAN
port or wireless device. Devices wishing to access services behind a port must authenticate
themselves before any Ethernet packets are allowed to pass through. The protocol is referred to as
802.1X because it was initially defined in the IEEE standard 802.1X, published in 2001 and revised in
2004 and again as the current 802.1X 2010 standard.

Networks have two important requirements:

 Security: Authentication and Authorization

 Flexibility: The ability for users to roam

Networks need a device authentication method that is highly secure, but not tied to a port’s physical
location. Network resources presented to a given user need to be determined from their
authentication credentials.

802.1X user authentication satisfies these requirements. It is relatively uncomplicated and has little
impact on network performance. It is a protocol that is medium-independent —being equally as
effective on wireless connections (802.11i) and wired connections. 802.1X user authentication is
rapidly becoming an expected component on networks.

802.1X system components

There are three main components to a system using 802.1X port authentication control:

 Authenticator: the device that wishes to enforce authentication before allowing access to
services that are accessible behind it. An example of this is a switch that has 802.1X port
authentication control enabled.

 Supplicant: the client that wishes to access services offered by the authenticator’s system. An
example of this is a Windows XP Professional PC with an 802.1X client.

 Authentication server: the device that uses the authentication credentials supplied by the
supplicant, to determine if the authenticator should grant access to its services. The AlliedWare
Plus implementation of 802.1X supports the use of a RADIUS. authentication server using
Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) in conjunction with RADIUS.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Figure 2: 802.1X system components

RADIUS
Server

Authentication Server
Switch

Authenticator

Supplicants

802.1X component protocols

There are two protocols involved in the authentication conversation:

1. EAPoL exchanged between the supplicant and authenticator.

 EAPoL—Extensible Authentication Protocol over LAN— is the protocol defined in

IEEE802.1X.

2. RADIUS exchanged between the authenticator and authentication server.

 RADIUS has received specific extensions to interoperate with EAPoL.

The diagram below illustrates where EAPoL and RADIUS protocols are used in the authentication
conversation:

Figure 3: 801.X component protocols

RADIUS

RADIUS
EAPoL Server

Authentication Server

Switch

Authenticator

Supplicants

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Basic steps in an 802.1X conversation:

1. The supplicant informs the authenticator that it wants to initiate the conversation.

2. The authenticator requests the supplicant's credentials.

3. The supplicant sends username/password or X.509 certificate.

4. The authenticator wraps the supplicant's reply into a RADIUS packet and sends it to the RADIUS
server.

5. The RADIUS server chooses an authentication method, and sends an appropriate request to the
supplicant as a ‘challenge’.

6. The RADIUS server and supplicant exchange some messages, ferried by the authenticator.

7. The RADIUS server eventually decides if the supplicant is allowed access and the RADIUS server
sends an Access-Accept or Access-Reject message to the Authenticator.

8. The authenticator sends an EAPoL-Success or EAPoL-Fail to the supplicant.

9. The supplicant has a session using the network (if accepted).

10. When the session is over, the supplicant sends a log-off message.

Example message sequence

The diagram below illustrates an exchange using the EAP-MD5 authentication method, which is the
simplest authentication method supported by 802.1X.

The EAPoL log-off message, of course, is not sent immediately after the other messages in the
diagram, but is sent later on, at the end of the supplicant’s data session, when it wishes to
disconnect from the network.

Figure 4: EAPoL message sequence

Authentication Server
Supplicant Authenticator (RADIUS server)
1 EAPOL-Start
EAPOL conversation
between supplicant EAP-Request/Identity 2
and switch.
3 EAP-Response/Identity (MyID)
4 Radius-Access-Request

EAP-Request-Challenge (MD5) Radius-Access-Challenge 5

6 EAP-Response-Challenge (MD5) Radius-Access-Request RADIUS conversation

between switch and
6 EAP-Request Radius-Access-Challenge RADIUS server.

Radius-Access-Accept 7
EAP-Success 8
Authentication
success Port authorized
Radius-Access-Reject 7
EAP-Fail 8
Authentication
fail Port unauthorized
9
Data Session
Authentication 10 EAPOL-Logoff
terminated Port unauthorized

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Basic steps in 802.1X configuration

To configure the switch operating as authenticator, follow the instructions below:

Figure 5: Configuring 802.1X basic steps

192.168.1.250 RADIUS
Server
192.168.1.45
port1.0.5 Authentication Server
Switch

Authenticator

Supplicant

Step 1: Configure a RADIUS server for the switch to send requests to

awplus(config)# radius-server host 192.168.1.250 key <secret-key>

Step 2: Instruct 802.1X to use the configured RADIUS server

awplus(config)# aaa authentication dot1x default group radius

Step 3: Configure port1.0.5 for 802.1X authentication

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.5
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto
awplus(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast

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802.1X configuration example

The following example explains how to configure 802.1X. In this example, the RADIUS Server keeps
the Client information, validating the identity of the Client and updating the switch about the
authentication status of the client. The switch is the physical access between the two clients and the
server. It requests information from the client, relays information to the server and then back to the
client.

To configure 802.1X authentication, first enable authentication on port1.0.1 and port1.0.2 and then
specify the RADIUS Server IP address and port.

Figure 6: 802.1X configuration example

Client A

port1.1.1
vlan 4 192.126.12.1
port1.1.2
Client B
Radius
Server

802-1x_1.1

Step 1: Enable authentication globally.

awplus# configure terminal
awplus(config)# aaa authentication dot1x default group radius

Step 2: Enable authentication (via RADIUS) on port1.0.1.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto

Step 3: Block traffic in both directions, other than authentication packets, until
authentication is complete.
awplus(config-if)# dot1x control-direction both
awplus(config-if)# exit

Step 4: Enable authentication (via RADIUS) on port1.0.2.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.2
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto
awplus(config-if)# exit

Step 5: Specify the RADIUS Server address (192.126.12.1) and authentication port.
awplus(config)# radius-server host 192.126.12.1 auth-port 1812

Step 6: Specify the shared key “mysecret” between the RADIUS server and the client.
awplus(config)# radius-server key mysecret

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Step 7: Set the IP address on vlan4.

awplus(config)# interface vlan4
awplus(config-if)#ip address 192.126.12.2/24

Multi-supplicant modes
AlliedWare Plus can be configured to accept one or more supplicants downstream of a port. Three
authentication host-modes are available:

 single-host: the default state, only one supplicant allowed per port.

 multi-host: once the first host on a port is authenticated, all other downstream hosts are allowed
without being authenticated (piggy-back mode).

 multi-supplicant: multiple separate supplicants are individually authenticated on one port.

The command (entered in interface configuration mode for a physical port interface) is :

awplus(config-if)# auth host-mode {single-hosy|multi-host| multi-

supplicant}

This command controls how the switch deals with the situation where multiple authentication
supplicants are downstream of a single port. This is possible if an EAP session passes through a
Layer 2 switch which has been connected to the port, and the supplicants are attached to that Layer
2 switch.

Single supplicant
The first option that the command can set is single-host. With this option, only one supplicant may
be authenticated on the port. Once that host has been authenticated, no other supplicants may be
authenticated until the first supplicant’s session has closed. This means, of course, that none of the
other hosts downstream of the port will be able to send or receive traffic on that port.

This option is recommended when you know that there should only be one host connected to a port.
By limiting the port to a single authenticated host, you guard against the consequences of someone
accidentally or maliciously connecting a downstream switch to the port.

Multi-host
The next available host-mode option is multiple host mode (chosen by the parameter value multi-
host). With this mode, once the first host has been authenticated on the port, all other downstream
hosts are allowed without being authenticated. This is sometimes known as piggy-back mode. It is
useful when the downstream switch attached to the authenticating port is an intelligent switch that
can act as an authentication supplicant.

If you trust that malicious users cannot be connected to that switch but you do not know the identity
of those users, then you can simply authenticate the switch and then allow its attached users to
have network access. If the valid switch is disconnected and an invalid one is connected which is
not configured with the correct authentication credentials, then the devices connected to the invalid
switch will be blocked from accessing the network.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Figure 7: Configuring 802.1X multi-host

Switch or router that RADIUS

can act as 802.1x supplicant Server

Authentication Server

x900 Switch

Authenticator

Once the supplicant switch/router is authenticated

Hosts all traffic from these hosts is allowed

802.1X VLAN assignment

Dynamic VLAN assignment
Whilst the authentication of devices attaching to the network is primarily driven by security
considerations, it has significant spin-off benefits.

Once a device has been authenticated, the network knows the identity of the device and/or its user.
Decisions can be made, based on this identity. In particular, it is possible to decide what network
environment, and level of access, to present to this device and its user.

The standard mechanism via which a user’s network environment is controlled is VLAN
membership. Once a user’s packets are classified into a particular VLAN, the user’s access to the
network will be controlled by the constraints that have been put on that VLAN throughout the
network.

For this reason, it is now common for LAN switches to have the ability to dynamically assign the
VLAN into which a device’s traffic will be classified, once that device has been authenticated.

Dynamic VLAN assignment is achieved by a collaboration between the authenticator (the LAN
switch) and the authentication server (the RADIUS server). When the RADIUS server sends back a
RADIUS accept message to the authenticator, it can also include other attributes in that message
that identify a VLAN to which the authenticated device should be assigned.

Dynamic VLAN assignment is a powerful extension to 802.1X, as it enables:

 Identity-based networking—the user gets the same environment no matter where they connect.

 Guest Access—guest users are allowed access to very limited parts of the network.

 NAC—level of access is based on a workstation’s security status.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Figure 8: Dynamic VLAN assignment

RADIUS access-accept
message says “supplicant is
accepted, put them into VLAN X”

RADIUS
Server

Authentication Server

x900 Switch

Authenticator

Supplicants

Authenticator configuration
In addition to the basic 802.1X configuration, some further configuration is required to enable
Dynamic VLAN creation on the switch. The VLANs that can be dynamically assigned must be
present in the VLAN database:

awplus(config)# vlan database

awplus(config-vlan)# vlan x
awplus(config-vlan)# vlan y
awplus(config-vlan)# vlan z
awplus(config-vlan)# exit

Ports that accept VLAN membership dynamically have to be enabled for dynamic VLAN creation:

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.5

awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation

Dynamic VLAN assignment with multiple supplicants

In multi-supplicant mode, what happens if two supplicants downstream of the same port are
assigned to different VLANs? The auth dynamic-vlan-creation command has two parameters that
govern the operation in this situation: rule and type.

The rule The first parameter is the rule parameter.

parameter
For switches that don’t support the type parameter, it is not possible to assign different VLANs to
untagged traffic from different supplicants. On these products, dynamic VLAN assignment
effectively says ‘the one untagged VLAN to be used on the authenticating port is VLAN x’. So, if the
first supplicant is authenticated and assigned VLAN 45, then the authenticating port will classify all
untagged traffic arriving on the port into VLAN 45. But if a second supplicant downstream of the
same port then authenticates, and the RADIUS server assigns VLAN 56 to that supplicant, the
switch then faces a dilemma. It is already using VLAN 45 as the untagged VLAN on that port; it
cannot use VLAN 56 as well.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

There are two ways that the switch can resolve this situation. It can:

1. Allow the second supplicant to access the network, but assign its data to VLAN 45.

2. Block the second supplicant from having network access.

The rule parameter configures which of these choices the switch will opt for. If rule is set to permit,
then option (1) above is chosen. If rule is set to deny, then option (2) above is chosen.

The type The second parameter is the type parameter.

parameter
The type parameter applies to devices that support MAC-based VLANs. Refer to your devices
datasheet or command reference to see if it supports this feature.

The effect of the type parameter is to make use of MAC-based VLAN support to provide a better
solution to the case where different supplicants downstream of a single port are dynamically
allocated to different VLANs.

If type is set to the value single, then the MAC-based VLAN capability is not used, and the port’s
behavior in the different-dynamic-VLANs situation will be controlled by the rule parameter.

However, if type is set to multi, the switch brings the MAC-based VLAN capability into play. This
capability enables it to support multiple different untagged VLANs on the same port. This is
achieved by associating VLAN membership with the source MAC address of the incoming packets.

So, when different supplicants downstream of a single port are dynamically assigned different
VLANs, the switch simply builds a table that maps supplicants’ MAC addresses to their dynamically
assigned VLANs.

The combination of these parameters results in three options for handling the case where different
VLANs are assigned to supplicants on the same ports.

Option 1 Deny access to supplicant assigned a different VLAN.

If the first supplicant authenticated on the port is assigned VLAN X, then any supplicants
subsequently assigned a different VLAN are denied access. This is the default state when dynamic
VLAN creation is enabled.

This is configured with:

awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation rule deny

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Figure 9: Deny access to supplicant assigned to a different VLAN

1. Supplicant accepted and

assigned VLAN 10

2. Supplicant accepted and assigned to VLAN11.

Authenticator allows access.

Option 2 Force all supplicants into the same VLAN

If the first supplicant authenticated on the port is assigned VLAN X, then any supplicants
subsequently assigned a different VLAN are allowed access, but forced into VLAN X

This is configured with:

awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation rule permit

Figure 10: Force all supplicants into the same VLAN

1. Supplicant accepted and

assigned VLAN 10

x900 Switch
Authenticator

2. Supplicant accepted by RADIUS server

and assigned VLAN 11. Authenticator
allows access, but puts supplicant into
VLAN 10.

Option 3 Dynamically assign multiple VLANs to one port

If your device supports MAC-based VLANs, it is possible to assign different VLANs to different
supplicants downstream of the same port.

This is configured with:

awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation rule permit type multi

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 AAA and Port Authentication

In addition, configure your RADIUS server to reply in Access-Accept packets with the attributes in
the following table.

ATTRIBUTE VALUE

Tunnel-Type VLAN (13

Tunnel-Medium-Type IEEE-802 (6)

Tunnel-Private-Group-ID The VID or VLAN name*

*The desired VLAN is specified with the Tunnel-Private-Group-ID attribute.

Figure 11: Dynamically assign multiple VLANs to one port

1. Supplicant accepted and

assigned VLAN 10

x600 Switch
Authenticator

2. Supplicant accepted and assigned to VLAN 11.

Authenticator allows access and allocates this
supplicant’s data to VLAN 11.

The switch can assign VLAN membership to packets based on source MAC:

 Packets from MAC of supplicant 1 are assigned to VLAN10

 Packets from MAC of supplicant 2 are assigned to VLAN11

Note: The FS980M series switches do not support using this feature:
with VLAN classifier rules on the same port. (VLAN classifier rules enable you to create
Protocol-based VLANs)
at the same time as IP subnet-based VLANs.

Using a guest VLAN

Whilst you need to authenticate the users who will have access to the important services within your
network, you might also want to provide some basic level of access to users who fail to
authenticate.

For example, visitors to an enterprise will often need to have Internet access. It would be desirable
to have a secure, convenient way to provide this Internet access via the corporate LAN.

By default, 802.1X denies access to users who fail authentication.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Guests are not known to the RADIUS server, so fail authentication. The solution is to provide a Guest
VLAN which is configured with:

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.5

awplus(config-if)# auth guest-vlan <vlan-id>

Figure 12: Using a guest VLAN

Public/Private
Zone
x600 ACLs used to ensure GUEST VLAN
traffic goes to the Internet and nowhere else
Windows 2008
server
Supplicant Enterprise CA
assigned to guest server
vlan

AR770

x900 stack
Internet
8000GS
Private Zone

Client devices

10/100 Link
1 Gigabit Link
Link aggregation

If a supplicant attempts authentication and fails or does not even attempt authentication (no 802.1X
client in the PC) then they are dynamically assigned to the guest VLAN.

Note: Users who failed authentication and are dynamically assigned to the Guest VLAN may see
reduced throughput as Guest VLAN traffic is CPU forwarded.

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Verify the operation of 802.1X

When a supplicant has been authenticated on a port the details of the authentication can be seen
with:

show dot1x supplicant int port1.0.5

Interface port1.0.5
authenticationMethod: dot1x <--- Authenticated by 802.1X
totalSupplicantNum: 1
authorizedSupplicantNum: 1
macBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
dot1xAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 1
WebBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum:
otherAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
Supplicant name: Engineer01 <--- Supplicant name
Supplicant address: 0002.b363.319f <---MAC of authenticated device
authenticationMethod: 802.1x
portStatus: Authorized - currentId: 9
abort:F fail:F start:F timeout:F success:T
PAE: state: Authenticated - portMode: Auto
PAE: reAuthCount: 0 - rxRespId: 0
PAE: quietPeriod: 60 - maxReauthReq: 2
BE: state: Idle - reqCount: 0 - idFromServer: 8
CD: adminControlledDirections: both - operControlledDirections: both
CD: bridgeDetected: false
KR: rxKey: false
KT: keyAvailable: false - keyTxEnabled: false
dynamicVlanId: 20 <--- VLAN assigned, if dynamic VLA
assignment enabled

When a supplicant has been authenticated, and assigned to a VLAN, the port they authenticated on
will then be seen to be a member of that VLAN.

show vlan 20

VLAN ID Name Type State Member ports

(u)-Untagged, (t)-Tagged
======= ================ ======= ======= ======================
20 Engineering STATIC ACTIVE port1.0.5(u)

show vlan 30

VLAN ID Name Type State Member ports

(u)-Untagged, (t)-Tagged
======= ================ ======= ======= ======================
30 Marketing STATIC ACTIVE port1.0.5(u)

Names of commands used

dot1x port-control
radius-server host
radius-server key
show dot1x
show dot1x interface

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Web Authentication

Introduction

Web authentication, also known as Captive Portal, is a simple way to provide secure guest- user
access to a network. It is used in a wide range of environments including WiFi hotspots, hotels,
universities, and business centers.

In basic terms, if the switch detects an unauthorized user Web browsing, then irrespective of the IP
configuration on their PC, they are re-directed to a web authentication login page. At this point, the
user is required to enter a username and password before they can begin to Web browse.

The main benefits of this solution come from not requiring additional customer knowledge, software
or special configuration.

Users are able to quickly and easily gain access to the network regardless of the type of device or
operating system used.

What is web authentication?

Web authentication is a convenient alternative to 802.1X authentication, it’s commonly used to
authenticate users in educational institutions, where regular users’ workstations are not managed by
the network administrator. web authentication enables the switch to detect an unauthenticated
workstation web browsing into the network, then redirect the user’s web browser to its own
authentication web page.

Web authentication works like this:

 The authenticating switch hijacks the user's web browsing session, and sends them the auth-web
login page.

 The user enters their username and password into the web page, which the switch then sends to
a RADIUS server for checking.

 If the RADIUS server accepts the user’s credentials, the switch then allows their traffic into the
network.

The web-authenticating switch interacts with a RADIUS server in the same way as an 802.1X
Authenticator. So the two methods can easily be used together in the same network, using the same
RADIUS server.

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Web authentication basics

Conceptually, the operation of web authentication is quite simple:

1. The authenticating switch receives HTTP or HTTPS traffic from an unauthenticated supplicant. It
intercepts the supplicant’s web session, and redirects it to its own internal web server, or specially
configured external web servers.

2. The web server serves up an authentication page into which the user may enter their username
and password.

3. The username and password are sent to a RADIUS server, which informs the authenticating
switch whether or not the supplicant is authenticated.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

4. The user is then informed of the RADIUS server’s verdict.

5. If the supplicant has been successfully authenticated, the authenticating switch will give the
supplicant workstation access to the network.

Configuring web authentication

Web authentication can be configured on a switch in four simple steps:

Step 1. Configure a RADIUS server.

awplus(config)# radius-server host <server-ip-address> key <shared secret>

Step 2. Instruct web authentication to use the configured RADIUS server.

awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-web default group radius

Step 3. Define the IP address the web authentication service will be accessed on.
awplus(config)# auth-web-server ipaddress <ip-address>

Step 4. Configure ports for web authentication.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1-1.0.20 auth-web enable

Configuring the web authentication server address

When you use the command auth-web-server ipaddress you will have to specify an IP address
that is not attached to any of the switch's interfaces, i.e. you need to use a virtual IP that belongs
just to the web-authenticator.

Because the virtual IP address is not attached to any of the switch's interfaces, you must install a
hardware filter to make sure the authorized supplicant can access the "Login Success" web page.

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For example, if you configure the web-authenticator to use the arbitrary address 1.1.1.1 as follows:

auth-web-server ipaddress 1.1.1.1

Then the authorized supplicants can't access the "Login Success" page because the traffic
destined to 1.1.1.1 is not necessarily sent to the switch's CPU. So you must also configure a
hardware filter to force packets for 1.1.1.1 to the CPU.

Here is an example of a hardware filter used to force packets for 1.1.1.1 to the CPU:

access-list hardware acl_webauth

send-to-cpu ip any 1.1.1.1/32
exit
interface port1.0.1
access-group acl_web_auth

Configuration example

VLAN database
VLAN 10 name edge
VLAN 30 name core

radius-server host 192.168.30.129 key verysecret

aaa authentication auth-web default group radius
auth-web-server ipaddress 1.1.1.1

access-list hardware acl_webauth

send-to-cpu ip any 1.1.1.1/32

int vlan10
ip address 192.168.10.1/24
int vlan30
ip address 192.168.30.1/24

int port1.0.1-1.0.20
switchport access vlan 10
auth-Web enable
access-group acl_webauth

int port1.0.21-1.0.22

Note: You can use a host name to represent the authenticating server, using the command auth-
web-server host-name. When you use this command please make sure you have already
registered the host name on the DNS server that users will access.

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Starting a web authentication session

Let us look at what the user actually sees in a web authentication session:

1. The user starts their web browser, and browses to a page they wish to view. Shortly thereafter,
the address in the browser’s address bar automatically changes to the address of the
authenticating switch’s authentication page.

2. In the switch’s authentication page, the user enters their user name and password, and clicks
login.

3. The switch displays a page that informs them that authentication is in progress.

4. Once authentication is complete, the authentication result is displayed.

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 If the user enters a username/password combination that is not accepted by the RADIUS server,
the switch presents an invitation to check the username and password, and try again.

 If the user enters incorrect usernames/passwords several times the authentication has failed. The
number of times a user can try to login is configurable, but it is set to 3 by default.

Understanding the web authentication features

While the authentication process, as it has been described so far, is essentially quite simple, there
are actually a number of implementation details that it glosses over.

To use web authentication effectively, it is necessary to understand these details – how they work
and how to configure them.

We’ll take a closer look at:

 Protocol support features

 Secure authentication (SSL)

 Ping-poll monitoring of supplicant presence

 Managing traffic of unauthenticated supplicants

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Support for protocols underlying web authentication

Web authentication does not use a dedicated protocol like 802.1X, with a standards-defined set of
messages for authentication conversation. When it comes to web authentication, the switch is
overlaying the authentication process on top of another process that was not designed for
authentication.

The web browser communication process that the authentication overlays, is itself reliant on IP
addressing, ARP, and DNS. The authentication needs to occur in a seamless manner for all users,
irrespective of their IP and DNS setting, and before they have full access to the network.

To make this possible, the switch needs to provide facilities that enable the user’s PC to access the
authentication web page.

There are a few different features of web authentication that work together to achieve this:

 ARP/DNS/DHCP packet forwarding is enabled by default

 A built-in DHCP server can be used for web authentication

 Or you can use an external DHCP server for web authentication

ARP/DNS/DHCP packet forwarding enabled by default

Web authentication differs from MAC authentication and 802.1X authentication, in that it must
assign an IP address to the unauthorized supplicant for web access. web authentication must not
suppress the unauthorized supplicant's DNS name and address resolution process.

For example, if the user's DNS request receives no reply, the web browser will never progress on to
attempting an HTTP/HTTPS session.

Thus web authentication must forward ARP, DHCP and DNS packets.

ARP/DHCP/DNS packet forwarding is enabled by default to facilitate the underlying processes

required before an HTTP session is initiated. If you want to disable this feature you can use the
command no auth-web forward to disable packet forwarding.

In general supplicants don't know the web authentication login page URL. In fact, supplicants will
typically just start trying to browse to somewhere on the Internet. So web authentication must hijack
all HTTP/HTTPS packets from unauthorized supplicants and send back the Login page contents
instead of allowing the session to the user's intended destination. Therefore, TCP/UDP packet
forwarding is disabled. To force TCP/UDP packets to pass through the Authenticator before the
supplicant is authorized you need to configure selective TCP/UDP forwarding.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

DHCP server for web authentication

To initiate a web browsing session, the supplicant needs an IP address. If the supplicant has been
configured to obtain its IP address by DHCP, then the authenticating switch needs to ensure that the
supplicant will be served an IP address.

The simplest way to achieve this is to use the web authentication switch itself to act as a DHCP
Server. There is a DHCP server built in to web authentication. This DHCP server is dedicated to
serving IP addresses to be used by web authentication clients.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

This DHCP service is configured by the command:

auth-web-server dhcp ip address <ip-address/prefix-length>

The IP address specified in this command is the IP address of the web authentication service. If the
web authentication service’s IP address has not already been configured by the command auth-
web-server ip address <ip-address>, then this command configures the service’s address.

If the web authentication service’s IP address has already been configured by the command auth-
web-server ip address <ip-address>, then the IP address in the auth-web-server dhcp
command must be the same as that already configured. By default, this DHCP server serves leases
of 30 seconds duration. The lease duration can be changed by the command auth-web-server
dhcp lease <20-60>. The short lease is deliberate. It facilitates the transition to a new VLAN/subnet
after authentication. The supplicant is unaware that the switch transitions it to another VLAN, with
another DHCP server, after authentication succeeds.

How can we force the supplicant to request a new DHCP lease after the completion of the
authentication process? There is no mechanism by which the supplicant's web browser signals
down to the DHCP client process to say “I've just completed an authentication session, you need to
request a new DHCP lease.”

Similarly, there is no mechanism by which the switch signals to the supplicant to say
“I have just assigned you to VLAN 236, you now need to obtain a DHCP lease from the DHCP
server on that VLAN.” How can we force the supplicant to request a new DHCP lease after the
completion of the authentication process?

There is no mechanism by which the supplicant’s web browser signals down to the DHCP client
process to say “I’ve just completed an authentication session, you need to request a new DHCP
lease.”

 This new request will now be serviced by the DHCP server on the supplicant’s new VLAN. 

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Note: When the built-in DHCP server is running, ARP/DHCP/DNS/HTTP packets are redirected to
the Web-Auth module, and other packets are dropped. Even if packet forwarding (configured
by the auth-web forward command, including the default setting ARP/DHCP/DNS
forwarding) is ignored.

Using an external DHCP server

You can also use a remote DHCP server instead of the built-in DHCP service. In this situation, all
supplicant's DHCP packets will be forwarded directly to the remote DHCP server by default, even
though the supplicant is not authenticated.

Customising the login page

When users access the login page, you may wish to customize with your company details and/or
policy information. There are three ways to customize the login page. You can:

 Create your own login page and serve it from the AlliedWare Plus device (see "Serving your own
login page from the AlliedWare Plus device" on page 42), or

 Create your own login page and serve it from an external web server (see "Serving your own login
page from an external web server" on page 42), or

 Use the default login page and customise it (see "Customizing the default login page" on page 46)

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Serving your own login page from the AlliedWare Plus device
With Version 5.4.6-1.1 and later, you can create your own web authentication login page.

To create your own login page, follow these steps:

Step 1. Create the page

Write the page in HTML. Note that it must include the following login form code:
<form action="/index.cgi" autocomplete="off" target="_self" name="AUTH"
method="POST">

<div>User name</div>
<div><input size="30" type="text" maxlength="64" name="USERNAME"></div>
<div>Password</div>
<div><input size="30" type="password" maxlength="64" name="PASSWORD"></div>

<div>
<input type="submit" name="ACTION" value="login">
<input type="reset" name="RESET" value="Reset">
</div>

</form>

If you do not include the above login form, the page will display in the client browser but will not
perform web authentication.

Step 2. Save the page onto the switch

Name the file login_page.html and save it in the folder /flash/web-auth/

Serving your own login page from an external web server

Web authentication supports a method for obtaining a custom login page from an external web
server. You can customize this login page fully to give it any appearance you like. See "Customizing
the default login page" on page 46 for details.

When web authentication is set up to obtain the login page from an external web server, the
sequence of events is as follows:

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 AAA and Port Authentication

After the supplicant gets an IP address from the DHCP server:

1. The supplicant will start to browse, and the Authenticator will intercept the supplicant HTTP
packets.

2. The Authenticator sends an HTTP response packet to the supplicant, and in this packet the
Authenticator uses the “refresh” attribute to tell the supplicant to obtain the login page from the
external web server.

3. The supplicant sends an HTTP request to external web server requesting the page login.html.

4. The external web server returns the login page. The external server must hold the file that is
specified in the command auth-web-server login-url.

5. The supplicant then returns to communicating with the Authenticator. When the user enters their
username and password, the supplicant sends these to the Authenticator.

6. The Authenticator will pass the user name and password to the RADIUS server for authentication.

7. The RADIUS server sends back the result to the Authenticator.

8. The Authenticator sends the result page to the supplicant. This is not a custom page, but is the
standard page built into web authentication.

The role of the external web server is to provide a customized login-page only. web authentication is
still performed by the AlliedWare Plus built-in server.

Standard Steps 1- 4 below are standard configuration for web authentication, and step 5 explains how to
config configure the external web server:

Step 1: Allocate an IP address to the supplicant:

In this example there is a remote DHCP server. (You can also configure the Authenticator as a local
DHCP server if needed).

awplus(config)#int vlan1
awplus(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.2/24

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Step 2: Configure the remote DNS server on the Authenticator:

awplus(config)#ip name-server x.x.x.x
awplus(config)#ip dns forwarding

Step 3: Configure auth-web on the Authenticator:

awplus(config)#aaa authentication auth-web default group radius
awplus(config)#int port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)#auth-web enable

Step 4: Configure the remote RADIUS server on the Authenticator :

(You can also configure the Authenticator as a local RADIUS server if needed.)

awplus(config)#radius-server host 192.168.1.254 key 123

Step 5: Now we come to the step that is specific to using the external login server.
You can use a domain name or the IP address of the external web server (in this example the IP
address of the external web server is 192.168.1.1). You also need to allow HTTP packets to the
external login server to be forwarded by using the command auth-web forward:

awplus(config)#auth-web-server login-url http://192.168.1.1/login.html

awplus (config-if)# auth-web forward 192.168.1.1 tcp 80
If the external web server is using another TCP port, then change 80 to the corresponding port
number.

Note: The routing in this network must be set up such that packets can be routed directly between
the supplicant and the external web server.

Supplicant 1. When the supplicant tries to access any website, it will be redirected to the external login page
login for authentication:

2. Enter the username and password. Click login. The authenticating page will appear. This is the
standard success page from the Authenticator.

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Wait for several seconds for the notification of success (or failure).

External 1. A file with the same name as that specified in the command auth-web-server login-url must be
login page present on the external web server.
support
2. The file must contain the following elements:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>HTML 5 complete</title>
</head>
<body>‘
<form action="http://<AW+ IP address>/index.cgi" autocomplete="off"
target="_self" name="AUTH" method="POST">
<div>User name</div>
<div><input size="30" type="text" maxlength="64" name="USERNAME"></div>
<div>Password</div>
<div><input size="30" type="password" maxlength="64" name="PASSWORD"></div>
<div>
<input type="submit" name="ACTION" value="login">
<input type="reset" name="RESET" value="Reset">
</div>
</form>
<body>
</html>

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Please note in this feature the Authenticator and the external web server don't communicate with
the each other. The role of external web server is just to serve a customized login page to the
supplicant.

3. Please note that the external login server feature is mutually exclusive with the 
auth-web DHCP server feature. So it is not possible to configure the commands 
auth-web-server login-url and auth-web-server dhcp ipaddress at the same time.

Customizing the default login page

Alternatively, it is possible to do some customization of the pages that web authentication presents
to a supplicant.

On the authentication challenge page, there are four items that can be customized:

 Title

 Sub-title

 Welcome message

 Logo

The authentication success page can also be customized, as can the authentication failure, and any
other information web authentication pages.

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Customize To configure customized web authentication pages, use the following steps:
web-auth
pages Step 1: Use the following commands to customize the strings that are present on the
pages by default:
auth-web-server page sub-title {hidden|text <sub-title>}
auth-web-server page title {hidden|text <title>}

 The hidden option on these commands will, of course, simply remove the string from the page
altogether.

 The no form of these commands simply takes the string back to its default state.

Step 2: Use these commands to add the strings that are not present by default:
auth-web-server page success-message text <success-message>
auth-web-server page welcome-message text <welcome-message>

 The no form of these commands simply removes those strings.

Step 3: To customise the logo, load your new logo to the location: flash:/logo.gif
e.g. copy tftp://<tftp server address>/my_logo.gif flash:/logo.gif

By default, the logo displayed on the web authentication pages is:

 The content of flash:/logo.gif if the file exists

 If a flash:/logo.gif does not exist, then the default Allied Telesis globe is used

The following command provides other options:

auth-web-server page logo {auto|default|hidden}

 If default is specified, then the logo displayed on the web authentication pages is the default
Allied Telesis globe regardless of whether or not flash:/logo.gif exists.

 if hidden is specified, then no logo is displayed.

 the auto option is the default behaviour described above.

Logo file properties

Format: GIF

Dimensions: The ideal dimensions for the logo file are 185x90 pixels.

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Put it all Using the image above stored as flash:/logo.gif, and the following commands, the authentication
together challenge page and the success pages appear as shown in the diagrams below:
example
auth-web-server page sub-title text Example Sub-title Text
auth-web-server page title Example Title
auth-web-server page success-message text Example Welcome Message
auth-web-server page welcome-message text Example Welcome Message

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Setting the intercept port number

By default web authentication recognizes packets going to TCP port 80 as HTTP packets, and those
going to TCP port 443 as HTTPS packets. web authentication redirects HTTP and HTTPS packets
received from unauthorized supplicants irrespective of their destination, to its own web
authentication server.

If you have Web servers or HTTP proxy servers in your network that are listening on ports other than
80 and 443, then you must register these port numbers as port numbers to intercept. You can
configure web authentication to treat particular port numbers as denoting HTTP traffic by using the
auth-web-server intercept-port command, and other port numbers as denoting HTTPS traffic by
using the auth-web-server ssl intercept-port command.

For example, If you have an HTTP proxy server listening on TCP port 8080, you must configure the
following command:

awplus(config)# auth-web-server intercept-port 8080

Similarly, if you have an HTTPS server listening on TCP port 900, you must configure the following
command:

awplus(config)# auth-web-server ssl intercept-port 900

If you have proxy server setting in your Intranet, please note that HTTP packets going to the proxy
server will be redirected, but web authentication doesn't support the redirecting of HTTPS packets
going to a proxy server.

Secure authentication
The web authentication service can be configured to use a secure HTTPS connection. This ensures
that the username and password are sent from the supplicant to the switch in encrypted form, and
cannot be snooped by anyone eavesdropping on the session.

By default auth-web uses a non-secure HTTP connection to communicate login account

information.

You can configure it to use a secure HTTPS instead of HTTP with the command:

awplus(config)# auth-web-server ssl

You can also use both HTTP and HTTPS using the command:

awplus(config)# auth-web-server ssl hybrid

When both protocols are used, HTTP packets are redirected to the HTTP server and HTTPS packets
are redirected to the HTTPS server respectively.

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Copying a certificate onto the switch

As well as using the self-created certificate, it is also possible to create a certificate elsewhere, and
copy that certificate onto the switch to be the SSL certificate for the web authentication service.

The command to copy the certificate onto the switch is:

copy tftp://<tftp server address>/<certificate file name> 

Web-auth-https-file

Note: The file that is copied onto the switch must:

be in PEM format
contain both the certificate and the corresponding Private key

Such a file could be created, for example, by using OpenSSL, which is available for multiple different
operating systems.

The openssl commands to create a key pair and a certificate are:

 Create the private key:

openssl genrsa -out privkey.pem 2048

 Create a self-signed certificate for this key:

openssl req -new -x509 -key privkey.pem -out cacert.pem

 This will result in you being prompted for a number of parameters, like organization name, email
address, etc. Enter whatever values you want for these parameters.

Privkey.pem and cacert.pem are text files. Use a text editor to combine the content of these files
together into a single file.

The order within the file does not matter – the key could be first, or the certificate could be first.
Once the file has been copied onto the switch to be the web authentication HTTPS file, the output of
the command show auth-web-server will look similar to this:

awplus#show auth-web-server
Web-authentication server
Server status: enabled
<SNIP>
Certification: user <------
<SNIP>

If you are not using a certificate that was copied onto the switch, but using one generated by the
switch itself, then this is reported as “Certification: Default”. If you wish to remove the certificate that
you have copied onto the switch, and go back to using the switch’s self-generated certificate, use
the command erase web-auth-https-file.

Note: If you have used the command auth-web-server host-name to set the host-name of the web
authentication server, then the switch will set the certificate's common name (FQDN) to be the
same as this configured host name. This is because when a browser verifies a certificate, it
will check that the host name and common name of server certificate are the same. If that
check fails the Web browser displays an error message indicating peer server may be fake.

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Also make sure that you have already registered the host name on the DNS server that users
will access.

Ping-poll monitoring of supplicant presence

A supplicant’s authenticated session on the network must eventually come to an end. How does the
Authenticator decide that a supplicant’s session has ended, and so remove it from the list of
authenticated supplicants?

Sometimes it is obvious when the supplicant’s session has ended, if the:

 supplicant unplugs from a port

 the user clicks the logout button they were provided with on the “Authentication Success” page,
as described in "Starting a web authentication session" on page 36.

Consider the case that a supplicant is not directly connected to the authenticating switch, but is
connected to another switch that lies between itself and the authenticating switch, and the user
simply disconnects their workstation.

If the network administrator wishes to ensure that the authenticating switch detects the supplicant’s
disconnection quickly, rather than waiting for the next expiration of the re-authentication period,
then they can use ping polling to monitor the supplicants.

This feature is enabled by the command:

awplus(config)# auth-web-server ping-poll enable

Once ping polling has been enabled, the web authentication service will automatically ping-poll
every web authentication supplicant once they have been authenticated.

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By default the ping-poll has a:

 polling interval of 30 seconds

 timeout of 1 second (i.e. the switch waits 1 second for the ping response before deciding the ping
has failed)

 failcount of 5 (i.e. if a given supplicant fails to respond to five pings in a row, its authenticated
session is terminated)

These default values can be altered by using the commands:

auth-web-server ping-poll interval <1-65535>

auth-web-server ping-poll timeout <1-30>
auth-web-server ping-poll failcount <1-100>

The currently configured values of these parameters can be seen by using the command:

show auth-web-server

awplus#show auth-web-server
Web-authentication server

PingInterval: 30
Timeout: 1
FailCount: 5
ReauthTimerRefresh: disabled

Checking the auth-web-server status

To assign a hostname to the web authentication server, use the command:

awplus(config)# auth-web-server host-name

When you use this command to serve a host-name to represent the web authentication server, the
supplicant must be able to resolve that host-name to access the web authentication server. This
means the host-name assigned to the web authentication server must be registered to a DNS
server. For example, if you enter the command auth-web-server host-name abcauthenticating,
you also must register a record for abcauthenticating to the DNS server. The Authenticator device
acts as the default gateway and will register the gateway information when the supplicant is
authorized.

Any HTTP Get Request received on an unauthorized interface is redirected to the web
authentication server automatically by default. So the command auth-web-server http-redirect is
hidden.

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Checking the IP addresses of the supplicants

To verify the IP addresses of the supplicants that the switch is ping-polling, use the command show
auth supplicant brief.

awplus#show auth supplicant brief

Interface port1.0.19
authenticationMethod: web

...

Interface VID Mode MAC Address Status IP Address Username

=========== ==== ==== ============== ============= ============= ========
port1.0.19 150 W 001c.7e95.d6bb Authenticated 192.168.150.9 test

Idle time-out
On AR Series devices, web authentication supports an Idle-Time feature. If the authenticator has not
seen data from a client for a configurable time period, then the client is automatically set to
unauthorized.

To enable the web authentication idle timeout process on eth1, use these commands:

awplus#configure terminal
awplus(config)#interface eth1
awplus(config-if)#auth-web enable
awplus(config-if)#auth-web idle-timeout enable

To set 30 minutes as the idle-timeout, use these commands:

awplus#configure terminal
awplus(config)#interface eth1
awplus(config-if)#auth-web idle-timeout timeout 1800

Note that the minimum timeout period is 420 seconds.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Managing unauthenticated supplicant traffic

The forwarding, blocking, and VLAN classification of traffic that arrives at the switch from
unauthenticated supplicants is not entirely straightforward, and is subject to configuration.

Before the supplicant tries to authenticate, its packets are managed as shown in the table below,
and if a user fails to login 3 times in a row, it will restart the authentication process from the
beginning.

Table 2: How web authentication manages different types of traffic

TRAFFIC TYPE HOW TRAFFIC IS PROCESSED

HTTP packets to web authentication Sent to CPU, processed by web authentication

server address
DHCP By default, traffic is sent to the CPU and passed through to the local
subnet (processed by the DHCP server if configured or exists on local
subnet).
If the interface is configured with the command
no auth-web forward dhcp, then it is dropped.

DNS By default, traffic is passed through to the DNS server (by using own
routing information).
If the interface is configured with the command
no auth-web forward dns, then it is dropped.
ARP Traffic is always sent to the CPU, and by default is passed through to
the local subnet also.
If the interface is configured with the command
no auth-web forward dns, then it is dropped.

Other packets If auth-web forwarding is configured with the command auth-web

forward {arp|dhcp|dns|...}, packets matching the criteria will be
forwarded to the native VLAN (not routed to other VLANs).
All other packets are dropped.

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Monitoring the operation of web authentication

There is no specific debugging available for web authentication. The conversation between web
authentication and a RADIUS server can be output by the command:

debug RADIUS all

An audit trail of web authentication events is kept in the system log. Successful and unsuccessful
login attempts, and log offs all generate entries in the system log.

2010 Jun4 18:50:54 daemon.notice awplus radiusd[1712]: Login OK: [andrewr] (from
client 127.0.0.1 port 5019 cli 00-1c-7e-95-d6-bb)

2010 Jun4 18:50:56 user.notice awplus 802.1X[1044]: port1.0.19: Web-

authentication successful for andrewr, IP 10.32.4.78, Mac 001c.7e95.d6bb

2010 Jun 4 18:52:31 daemon.notice awplus radiusd[1712]: Login incorrect: [tester]

(from client 127.0.0.1 port 5019 cli 00-1c-7e-95-d6-bb)

2010 Jun4 18:52:33 user.notice awplus 802.1X[1044]: port1.0.19: Web-

authentication failed for tester, IP 192.168.101.6, Mac 001c.7e95.d6bb

2010 Jun 15 18:35:00 user.notice awplus 802.1X[1046]: port1.0.19: Supplicant and

rewr unauthorized, Mac 001c.7e95.d6bb

A list of all currently authenticated web authentication supplicants can be seen from the commands:

awplus(config)# show auth supplicant

awplus(config)# show auth supplicant brief

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Configuration example: Guest VLAN and URL redirection

The purpose of this example configuration is to combine Web Authentication with redirection to a
specific URL (www.polimi.it) and Guest VLAN. In addition, supplicants use an external DHCP server
to assign IPs to authenticated users and also to users in the Guest and temporary VLANs.

The network setup is illustrated in the diagram below:

DH
x6 thW
W8 1.0.4 1.0.1

x5 Se
Au
10 eb

CP
10 rv
.1

NA
T
1.0.1 1.0.11

re
The configurations are:

x610_AuthWEB

This is the switch that is performing the Web Authentication. It is configured to accept HTTPS
connections, redirect users to www.polimi-it, and put failed and guest users into VLAN218.

radius-server host 10.168.18.252 timeout 5 retransmit 3 key testing123

!
aaa authentication enable default local
aaa authentication login default local
aaa authentication dot1x default group radius
aaa authentication auth-web default group radius

ip name-server 8.8.8.8
ip domain-lookup

auth-web-server ipaddress 20.1.1.1

auth-web-server ssl
auth-web-server redirect-url http://www.polimi.it
auth-web-server session-keep
!
access-list hardware acl_webauth
send-to-cpu ip any 20.1.1.1/32

vlan database
vlan 201 name WR-ED9
vlan 218 name TESTGUESTWEB

interface port1.0.1
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan add 201,218

[Continued on next page...]

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 AAA and Port Authentication

interface port1.0.2
switchport access vlan 218

interface port1.0.4
switchport access vlan 201
access-group acl_webauth
auth-web enable
dot1x port-control auto
dot1x timeout tx-period 5
218
auth auth-fail vlan 218
spanning-tree portfast

interface vlan201
ip address 10.169.0.201/24

interface vlan218
ip address 10.168.18.218/24
ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.168.18.253
ip dns forwarding

x510_DHVCP_serv:

This is the switch that is operating as the DHCP server.

ip dhcp pool dhcp_guest218

network 10.168.18.0 255.255.255.0
range 10.168.18.200 10.168.18.235
dns-server 8.8.8.8
default-router 10.168.18.254
lease 0 0 0 20

ip dhcp pool dhcp_201

network 10.169.0.0 255.255.255.0
range 10.169.0.200 10.169.0.240
dns-server 8.8.8.8
default-router 10.169.0.254
lease 0 0 60

interface port1.0.1
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan add 201,218
switchport trunk native vlan none

interface port1.0.11
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan add 201,218
switchport trunk native vlan none

interface vlan201
ip address 10.169.0.253/24

interface vlan218
ip address 10.168.18.253/24
ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.169.0.251

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What does the user experience?

When a supplicant connects to port1.0.4, they are initially put into the guest VLAN (VLAN218), and
allocated an IP address in the 10.18.168.0/24 subnet.

 If they then try to browse to a website, they are presented with the WebAuth login page.

 If they log in successfully they are:

 put into VLAN201, and given an IP address in the 10.169.0.0/24 subnet.

 shown the Authenticated page

 automatically directed to the website www.polimi.it

The terminal monitor on the authorizing switch reports:

15:15:14 x610_AuthWEB 802.1X[1431]: Web Authentication successful for

[email protected](10.168.18.200) on port1.0.4
15:15:14 x610_AuthWEB NSM[1403]: Interface port1.0.4: authorised (0 --> 1)
15:15:14 x610_AuthWEB NSM[1403]: Notify PM that interface port1.0.4 becomes
authorised by 802.1x

DHCP debugging on the x510 shows the change of IP from guest-vlan218 to vlan201.

15:18:54 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPREQUEST for 10.168.18.200 from

00:21:70:d7:38:56 (LAB_D630) via vlan218
15:18:54 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPACK on 10.168.18.200 to 00:21:70:d7:38:56
(LAB_D630) via vlan218
15:18:44 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPREQUEST for 10.168.18.200 from
00:21:70:d7:38:56 (LAB_D630) via vlan218
15:18:44 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPACK on 10.168.18.200 to 00:21:70:d7:38:56
(LAB_D630) via vlan218
15:19:04 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPNAK on 10.168.18.200 to 00:21:70:d7:38:56 via
vlan201

15:19:04 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:21:70:d7:38:56 via vlan201

15:19:05 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPOFFER on 10.169.0.200 to 00:21:70:d7:38:56
(LAB_D630) via vlan201
15:19:05 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPREQUEST for 10.169.0.200 (10.169.0.253) from
00:21:70:d7:38:56 (LAB_D630) via vlan201
15:19:05 DHCP_serv dhcpd[31660]: DHCPACK on 10.169.0.200 to 00:21:70:d7:38:56
(LAB_D630) via vlan201

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 AAA and Port Authentication

MAC Authentication

Why is MAC authentication required?

The authentication mechanisms provided by 802.1X and Web authentication are powerful and
effective. But, they are not universally applicable. Web authentication is only applicable to devices
that have a human user who opens the web browser and types in a username and password when
requested. 802.1X authentication is only possible from devices whose software implements an
802.1X supplicant.

There are plenty of network-connected devices, like printers, scanners, fire-alarm monitors and so
on, that have neither a human user nor implement an 802.1X supplicant. In a network that ensures
all access is authenticated, there needs to be a mechanism for authenticating these devices.

Fortunately, all Ethernet transceivers have a unique identifier—their MAC address. Hence, even
without user input of a username and password, any Ethernet device will automatically identify itself
simply by virtue of the source MAC address in the packets it sends. The method that has been
developed for authenticating these devices uses the MAC address as the identifier, and so is called
MAC-based authentication.

How does MAC authentication work?

In essence, MAC authentication works little differently from 802.1X or web authentication.

Here are the main steps:

4. The supplicant is connected to the switch.

5. The switch (acting as the authenticator) receives an ID from the supplicant.

6. The switch passes the supplicant's ID to a RADIUS server in an Access-Request packet

7. The RADIUS server returns an Access-Accept or an Access-Deny. The Access-Accept can be

accompanied with other attributes, for dynamic VLAN assignment.

The unique aspects of MAC authentication are in steps 2 and 3.

MAC authentication does not involve a process whereby the switch sends an ID request to the
supplicant. The switch receives the ID from the supplicant by simply looking at the source MAC in
the packets being sent from the supplicant.

The MAC address of the supplicant is a single identifier. But a RADIUS access-request requires both
a username and a password. The workaround employed by MAC authentication is simply to use the
MAC address as both username and password.

The switch extracts the source MAC address from the supplicant's packets and puts it into a string
of the form xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx, using lower-case letters for any hex digits in the range a-f. This string
is then used as both the username and the password in the RADIUS access-request packet. The
supplicant MAC address is also sent in the attribute 31 “calling-station-id” as usual.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Configuring MAC authentication

Under AlliedWare Plus, there are two steps to setting up MAC authentication.

1. Define the authentication method list that is used for MAC authentication.

There is only one method list that can be created for MAC authentication—the default method list.
Moreover, the only authentication server type that can be used is RADIUS.

The command for defining the method list is:

awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-mac default group radius

2. Enable MAC authentication on the ports that are to perform this authentication:

The command for defining the method list is:

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.2

awplus(config)# auth-mac enable
awplus(config)# spanning-tree edgeport

On the RADIUS server, it is necessary to create user entries where both the username and password
are the MAC address of the supplicant, in the form xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx. For example on the
AlliedWare Plus local RADIUS server, the configuration is:

awplus(config)# radius-server local

awplus(config-radsrv)# user xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx password xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

The supplicant, requires no configuration, as the whole purpose of MAC authentication is to

authenticate devices that cannot be configured for authentication.

It is also possible to configure the authentication protocol that the switch uses in its interaction with
the RADIUS server. There are two choices of protocol: EAP-MD5 and PAP. The default method is
PAP, and can be changed by using the command:

awplus(config-if)# auth-mac method [eap-md5|pap]

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Tri-authentication
Tri-authentication is when multiple port authentication methods (MAC, 802.1X, and/or web-based)
are configured on the same interface. With tri-authentication, a supplicant is authorized to use the
network as soon as they are successfully authenticated by any of the configured authentication
methods.

The default authentication order for tri-authentication is:

 MAC authentication is attempted first.

 If MAC authentication fails and the next packet is:

– an EAPoL packet, then 802.1X authentication is attempted.

– HTTP traffic, then web-based authentication is attempted.

 The supplicant is authorized as soon as they are successfully authenticated by any method.

Tri-authentication configuration
The following three steps configure tri-authentication across a range of switch ports:

Step 1: Define the RADIUS Server:

Define the RADIUS Server where the switch will send authentication requests by using the
commands:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# radius-server host <ip-address> key <key-string>

These commands adds the RADIUS Server address and set parameters to the RADIUS server. The
key parameter specifies the secret key for the server.

Note: The RADIUS Server, where the switch sends authentication requests, can be the switch’s own
Local RADIUS Server. For information on how to configure Local RADIUS Server see the
Local RADIUS Server Feature Overview and Configuration Guide.

Step 2: Define the default authentication server lists

Define the default authentication server lists for 802.1X authentication, web authentication, and
MAC authentication:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# aaa authentication dot1x default group radius
awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-web default group radius
awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-mac default group radius

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Step 3: Enable 802.1X authentication, web authentication, and MAC authentication:

Follow the instructions below to enable 802.1X authentication, web authentication, and MAC
authentication on switch ports to attach supplicant devices. This authenticates the supplicant if any
of the three methods that the supplicant tries work.

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface <interface-range>
awplus(config-if)# switchport mode access
awplus(config-if)# switchport access vlan 1
awplus(config-if)# auth-web enable
awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto
awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation

Refer to the other sections of this guide to configure VLANs, IP addresses and other authentication
settings for the authentication type you want.

Authentication priority for tri-authentication

From version 5.5.0-2.1 onwards, you can set the order of priority for tri-authentication. By default,
no authentication priority is set and a supplicant will try each authentication method until they are
successfully authenticated. Once a supplicant is authenticated any future attempts to authenticate
are ignored.

When authentication priority is set, however, and a higher priority authentication attempt is made by
the supplicant, a new authentication process starts. The supplicant will then be authorized, or
unauthorized, based on the result of this new authentication attempt.

Setting the tri-authentication priority:

 Does not change the order of authentication.

 Only affects supplicants that are already authorized.

 Allows an authorized supplicant to initiate another authentication attempt, if the authentication

method has a higher priority than the one it was authorized with.

 Applies new information acquired from the RADIUS server during additional authentication
attempts, to the supplicant.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Authentication priority example

Giving 802.1X a higher priority than MAC authentication could be useful, for example, in the
following scenario.

 A supplicant is authorized on a network using MAC authentication.

 This allows the supplicant to receive the information required to initiate an 802.1X authentication
attempt.

 The supplicant is then authorized, or unauthorized, based on the result of this 802.1X
authentication attempt.

The following steps describe how to configure 802.1X authentication to have a higher priority than
MAC authentication on interface port1.0.1.

Step 1: Enable 802.1X authentication, and MAC authentication:

Any authentication methods specified in by authentication priority should be correctly configured.

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# switchport mode access
awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto

Step 2: Enable 802.1X authentication, and MAC authentication:

awplus(config-if)# auth priority dot1x auth-mac

See the relevant sections of this guide to configure VLANs, IP addresses, and other authentication
settings for both authorized and unauthorized supplicants.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Two-step Authentication
The single step authentication methods (either user or device authentication) have a potential
security risk:

 an unauthorized user can access the network with an authorized device, or

 an authorized user can access the network with an unauthorized device

Two-step authentication solves this problem by authenticating both the user and the device. The
supplicant will only become authenticated if both these steps are successful. If the first
authentication step fails, then the second step is not started.

By default the following authentication sequences are supported for two-step authentication:

 MAC authentication followed by 802.1X authentication

 MAC authentication followed by web authentication

 802.1X authentication followed by web authentication.

This order can be changed with the auth two-step order command.

To configure two-step authentication:

1. Configure the first authentication method.

2. Configure the second authentication method.

3. Specify the command auth two-step enable.

4. Make sure that both authentication steps require different authentication credentials.

Two-step authentication example

To enable MAC authentication followed by 802.1X authentication, use the following commands:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.2
awplus(config-if)# switchport mode access
awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto
awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation
awplus(config-if)# auth two-step enable

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Two-step authentication order example

The default two-step authentication order depends on the combination of the authentication
methods configured on an interface:

 If MAC authentication is configured then MAC authentication will be the first method.

 If MAC authentication is not configured then 802.1X authentication will become the first method.

 If only two methods are configured then the remaining method becomes the second method.

 If all three methods are configured then the second method is chosen based on the packet type
received (802.1X authentication for an EAPOL packet and web authentication for an HTTP
packet).

The auth two-step order command allows you to change this default order. The first method must
be either auth-mac or dot1x while the second method can be any of the three methods; auth-mac,
dot1x, or auth-web.

If, for example, you would like to configure the two-step authentication order to be 802.1X
authentication followed by MAC authentication use the following commands.

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# switchport mode access
awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto
awplus(config-if)# auth two-step enable
awplus(config-if)# auth two-step order dot1x auth-mac

Use the no variant of this command to reset the order back to default.

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# no auth two-step order

Use the show auth interface command to see the two-step authentication order configuration.

awplus(config)# show auth interface

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 AAA and Port Authentication

awplus# show auth interface

Authentication Info for interface port1.0.1
portEnabled: true - portControl: Auto
portStatus: Authorized
...
dot1x: enabled
protocolVersion: 1
authMac: enabled
method: PAP
reauthRelearning: disabled
authWeb: disabled
twoStepAuthentication:
configured: enabled
actual: enabled
order: dot1x mac
...

Use the show auth supplicant command to see the a supplicant’s two-step authentication status.

awplus(config)# show auth supplicant

awplus# show auth supplicant

Interface port1.0.1
authenticationMethod: dot1x/mac
Two-Step Authentication
firstMethod: dot1x
secondMethod: mac
totalSupplicantNum: 1
authorizedSupplicantNum: 1
macBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 1
dot1xAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
webBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
otherAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0

Supplicant name: 80-1f-02-2f-ff-f3

Supplicant address: 801f.022f.fff3
authenticationMethod: MAC-based Authentication
Two-Step Authentication:
firstAuthentication: Pass - Method: dot1x
secondAuthentication: Pass - Method: mac
portStatus: Authorized - currentId: 3
...

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Ensuring Authentication Methods Require Different

Usernames and Passwords
If you configure a user or device to use multiple authentication methods, you need to set up your
system to avoid a potential vulnerability.

The vulnerability occurs because there is no way for a RADIUS server to determine what
authentication method you are using. Authentication simply queries a RADIUS server to see whether
a username/password pair is valid.

This means that if you use the same RADIUS server for multiple authentication methods, a user can
enter the same username/password pair for each of these authentication methods. If that
username/password pair is valid for one of the methods, it will work for all of them.

This vulnerability is particularly significant for MAC authentication, because the default username
and password is the MAC address of the supplicant device, which is easy to discover.

For example, if you set up two-step authentication of MAC authentication and 802.1X
authentication, and both use the same RADIUS server, then an attacker does not need to know the
801.1x username and password. Instead, they can pass the 802.1X authentication step by entering
the device’s MAC address into the 802.1X username and password fields.

To avoid this vulnerability:

 Use different RADIUS servers for each authentication method, and/or

 Change the default password for MAC authentication, by using the auth-mac password
command.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Roaming Authentication
When network security is required, the usability of network security must be considered. The
Roaming Authentication feature improves the usability of network security by enabling users to
move within the network without requiring them to re-authenticate each time they move.

If a supplicant (client device) moves from one wireless access point to another wireless access
point, and the wireless access points are connected to different ports, then the switch
(authenticator) recognizes that the supplicant has been authenticated and accepts the supplicant
without requiring re-authentication.

Figure 13: Diagram showing Roaming Authentication running on a standalone switch

Web authentication and MAC authentication are the authentication methods in a Wireless LAN
environment, and 802.1X is the authentication method used for supplicants attached to edge
switches.

Roaming Authentication is normally enabled using the auth roaming enable command. However,
Roaming Authentication has been extended (with the auth roaming disconnected command) to
work where an interface is link down. This allows you to enable supplicants to move from
authenticated interfaces that are link down, without requiring re-authentication.

Roaming Authentication is available for use with the VCStack feature, and is available on static and
dynamic (LACP) channel group interfaces.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Figure 14: Diagram showing Roaming Authentication running with VCStack

Roaming authentication overview

Without the Roaming Authentication feature enabled, if a supplicant moves from one switch port to
another switch port, the supplicant’s authenticated status, authentication, and assigned VLAN is
deleted and the supplicant is re-authenticated so the supplicant can access the network, and all
traffic from the supplicant is dropped while the supplicant is being re-authenticated.

With the Roaming Authentication feature enabled, a switch port inherits the status of a supplicant
from the switch port that the supplicant was moved from. If the Roaming Authentication feature is
enabled on a switch, then once a supplicant (client device) is authenticated on the switch it does not
have to be re-authenticated if it moves between ports of that switch. Supplicant traffic is not
dropped because there is no delay for re-authentication, during which the supplicant cannot access
the network.

For example, when the Roaming Authentication feature is used in an wireless LAN environment with
wireless access points, then the wireless clients can roam between wireless access points
connected to different switch ports without re-authentication.

The Roaming Authentication feature also supports VCStack operation and works on defined static
channel group (static aggregators) and dynamic channel group (LACP) interfaces. When VCStack
and Roaming Authentication features are used together, the status of a supplicant is inherited from
one aggregated interface to another aggregated interface over the stack.

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Roaming authentication feature interactions

When the Roaming Authentication feature is disabled, a supplicant must be re-authenticated on the
destination interface when it roams. When the Roaming Authentication is enabled, the following
supplicant authentication status and information is inherited from the source interface:

 Authentication status

 Authentication method

 Supplicant MAC address

 Supplicant IP address (if an authenticated interface is configured for Web authentication)

 Supplicant name

 Authorized dynamic VLAN ID

 Authorized RADIUS server

 Reauthentication timer (if configured using the auth timeout reauth-period command)

Roaming Authentication is only supported between interfaces with the same authentication
configuration. If source and destination interfaces have different authentication configuration then
the supplicant will be re-authenticated at the destination interface.

When the host mode is set with the auth host-mode, a supplicant is not authenticated on a
destination interface, and the authentication status is deleted on the source interface.

When a supplicant moves from an interface with authentication configured to an interface without
authentication configured, the supplicant’s authentication status is deleted.

A supplicant is re-authenticated when it moves to a destination interface that is configured on a

different VLAN than the VLAN that is configured for the source interface.

See the following Roaming Authentication feature interactions:

 Multiple Dynamic VLANs are supported when configured with the auth dynamic-vlan-creation
using the multi parameter. Multiple Dynamic VLANs are disabled by default.

 Supplicants are re-authenticated on the destination interface if the VLAN ID changes when Single
Dynamic VLANs are configured with the auth dynamic-vlan-creation the using the single
parameter. Single Dynamic VLANs are disabled by default.

 The Roaming Authentication feature is supported on Guest VLANs configured by the .

 The Roaming Authentication feature will not function with Dynamic VLANs.

 The Roaming Authentication feature will not function with Guest VLANs.

When the Roaming Authentication feature is configured for use on a stack with the VCStack feature,
note that supplicants are initialized and re-authenticated if a VCStack failover occurs.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Unauthenticated Supplicant Traffic

When any authentication is configured on a switch port, the question arises as to what the switch
does with packets that arrive into the switch port from unauthenticated supplicants.

Unauthenticated supplicants fall into three categories listed below:

 Newly attached supplicants, which are still in the process of their first authentication attempt

 Supplicants that have made an authentication attempt, but have failed authentication

 Supplicants that have been attached, but have not made an authentication attempt. For example,
on a port that has only 802.1X authentication enabled, any supplicant that has no 802.1X client
software will not be able to attempt 802.1X authentication.

In switches that are running the AlliedWarePlus Operating System, packets from all these three
categories of unauthenticated supplicants are treated equally; no distinction is made between these
three categories. The treatment of the traffic from unauthenticated supplicants does, however,
depend on two factors:

 Whether a Guest VLAN has been configured on the switch port to which the supplicant is
attached

 Whether Web authentication has been configured on the switch port to which the supplicant is
attached

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 AAA and Port Authentication

The rules governing the treatment of packets from unauthenticated supplicants are laid out in the
table below:
Table 3: Treatment of packets from unauthenticated supplicants

SWITCH PORT NO GUEST VLAN CONFIGURED NO GUEST VLAN GUEST VLAN CONFIGURED
CONFIGURATION CONFIGURED, AUTH-FAIL
VLAN CONFIGURED

web Packets from unauthenticated Packets from unauthenticated Packets from unauthenticated
authentication supplicants are associated with supplicants are associated supplicants are associated with the
configured the Native VLAN of the port. with the Native VLAN of the Guest VLAN of the port. Packets from
Packets from unauthenticated port. If newly connected unauthenticated supplicants are
supplicants are processed supplicants attempt 802.1X processed according to these rules:
according these rules: port authentication or web ■ Packets destined to the WebAuth
■ Packets destined to the authentication and fail, then server IP address/TCP port are
WebAuth server IP address/ they are moved to the auth-fail forwarded to the server (which may
TCP port are forwarded to the VLAN. well be the switch itself).
server (which may well be the ■ DHCP packets are sent to the CPU,
switch itself). to be processed by a local DHCP
■ DHCP packets are sent to the server, or relayed to another DHCP
CPU, to be processed by a server, depending on the
local DHCP server, or relayed configuration of the switch.
to another DHCP server, ■ DNS packets are forwarded to the
depending on the CPU, and then sent on to a DNS
configuration of the switch. server, if the switch is configured
■ DNS packets are forwarded to with a DNS server address.
the CPU, and then sent on to ■ ARP packets are forwarded to the
a DNS server, if the switch is CPU, and an ARP entry for the
configured with a DNS server supplicant is learnt.
address. ■ Drop all other packets destined to
■ ARP packets are forwarded to the IP address of the Guest VLAN.
the CPU, and an ARP entry for ■ Layer 2 forward packets destined
the supplicant is learnt. to other addresses within the Guest
■ If web-auth forwarding is VLAN.
enabled for particular types of ■ All other packets are dropped.
packets, then those packets
will be forwarded within the
Native VLAN
■ All other packets are dropped.

No web All non-eap packets from All non-eap packets from Packets from unauthenticated
authentication unauthenticated supplicants are unauthenticated supplicants supplicants are associated with the
configured dropped. are dropped. Guest VLAN of the port. The packets
are processed according to these rules:
■ Drop packets destined to the IP
address of the Guest VLAN.
■ Layer 2 forward packets destined
to other addresses within the Guest
VLAN.
■ Drop all other packets.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Deciding when a supplicant fails authentication

Although the treatment of packets from unauthenticated supplicants does not differentiate between
the three categories of supplicant, it is still useful to know for sure when the switch decides that a
supplicant has failed authentication.

The rules for deciding that a supplicant has failed authentication are listed below for each type of
authentication available:

Deciding when a supplicant fails 802.1X authentication

If the supplicant responds to EAP authentication requests, and the supplicant’s authentication
information is sent to the RADIUS server, and the RADIUS server replies with an Authentication-
Reject, then the supplicant is immediately deemed to have failed authentication.

If the supplicant does not respond to EAP authentication requests, then the switch will resend the
authentication requests up to a maximum number of attempts set by the command dot1x max-
reauth-req (the default is 2). The interval between the attempts is set by the command dot1x
timeout tx-period (the default is 30 seconds). If the supplicant still has not responded after this, it is
deemed to have not attempted authentication.

Deciding when a supplicant fails Web authentication

As soon as the supplicant attempts any web-browsing, the switch will intercept the web session,
and present the supplicant with an authentication request page. If the user enters a username and
password, and clicks the login button, then the switch will send the username and password to the
RADIUS server. If the RADIUS server replies with an Authentication-Reject, then the supplicant is
immediately deemed to have failed authentication.

Until the supplicant has attempted any web-browsing, or has received the authentication request
page, but not yet clicked the login button, the supplicant is deemed to be not yet authenticated (as
against not able to authenticate).

Deciding when a supplicant fails MAC authentication

As soon as the supplicant sends any packet, the source MAC address from the packet will be sent
to the RADIUS server for authentication. If the RADIUS server replies with an Authentication-Reject,
then the supplicant is immediately deemed to have failed authentication.

With MAC-auth there really is no concept of not-yet-attempted authentication, because

authentication is attempted as soon as a supplicant sends a packet.

Failed authentication VLAN

The auth-fail VLAN feature allows the network administrator to separate the supplicants who
attempted authentication, but failed, from the supplicants who did not attempt authentication.

This feature enables the network administrator to enact a security policy in which the supplicants
who fail authentication are given extremely limited access, or are given access to remedial
applications.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

If the Guest VLAN and auth-fail VLAN are both configured on a switch, then a newly connected
supplicant initially belongs to the Guest VLAN. If newly connected supplicants attempt 802.1X port
authentication or web authentication and fail, then they are moved from the Guest VLAN to the auth-
fail VLAN.

The criteria for how many failed authentication attempts are allowed before the supplicant is moved
to the auth-fail VLAN differs, depending on the authentication method used.

If web authentication is used, then the supplicant is moved to the auth-fail VLAN after the first failed
attempt. If 802.1X port authentication is used, then the supplicant is moved to the auth-fail VLAN
after the number of failed attempts is equal to the value configured by the dot1x max-auth-fail
command (by default, three failed 802.1X authentication attempts are allowed).

The MAC authentication feature does not support the max-auth-fail option. If auth-fail VLAN feature
is used in conjunction with MAC authentication only one attempt is allowed for a MAC
authentication supplicant. If the attempt fails, then the supplicant will be treated as “Authenticated”
and the interface will be added to the configured auth-fail VLAN.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Limitations on allowed feature combinations

Note that the web authentication feature cannot be used with the Guest VLAN or auth-fail VLAN
features. For further limitation information see the below tables:

Table 4: Interoperation of authentication types with Guest VLAN and auth-fail VLAN

AUTHENTICATION GUEST VLAN  GUEST VLAN  FAILED AUTHENTICATION VLAN

TYPE: (WITHOUT ROUTING MODE) (WITH ROUTING MODE)

802.1X Layer 2 forward packets Unauthorized supplicant can Failed authentication supplicant can
authentication destined to other addresses access Guest VLAN. Use ACL for access auth-fail VLAN. See
within the Guest VLAN. security on the interface. limitations table below for ACL usage
limitation.
MAC authentication Layer 2 forward packets Unauthorized supplicant can Failed authentication supplicant can
destined to other addresses access Guest VLAN. Use ACL for access auth-fail VLAN. See
within the Guest VLAN. security on the interface. limitations table below for ACL usage
limitation.

Web authentication Layer 2 forward packets Unauthorized supplicant can Failed authentication supplicant can
(without intercept destined to other addresses access Guest VLAN. Use ACL for access auth-fail VLAN. See
mode) within the Guest VLAN. security on the interface. limitations table below for ACL usage
limitation.
Web authentication (Not Available) (Not Available) (Not Available)
(with intercept
mode)

Table 5: Interactions between Guest VLAN and auth-fail VLAN

AUTHENTICATI GUEST VLAN  GUEST VLAN  FAILED AUTHENTICATION VLAN

ON FEATURE: (WITHOUT ROUTING MODE) (WITH ROUTING MODE)

Guest VLAN  (Not Available) (Not Available) Cannot configure ACLs on the Guest
(without routing VLAN when it is not in routing mode. 
mode) The Guest VLAN without routing mode
has reserved ACLs already attached to
it.
Guest VLAN  (Not Available) (Not Available) Configuration of ACLs for additional
(with routing interface security is recommended.
mode)

Failed Cannot configure ACLs on Configuration of ACLs for additional Failed authentication supplicant can
Authentication the Guest VLAN when it is not interface security is recommended. access auth-fail VLAN. See limitations
VLAN in routing mode.  table below for ACL usage limitation.
The Guest VLAN without
routing mode has reserved
ACLs already attached to it.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Single Supplicant on Multiple VLANs

From 5.4.8-1.1 onwards, AlliedWare Plus supports packet forwarding on multiple VLANs for an
authenticated supplicant attached to a trunked (tagged VLAN) port. This feature is available on all
AlliedWare Plus switches.

By default, AlliedWare Plus only allows packet forwarding on the VLAN that a device is
authenticated on. This enhancement allows packet forwarding to the attached device on any VLAN
configured on the switchport. After the device authenticates it will have access to all VLANs
configured on the switchport.

Configuring packet forwarding on multiple VLANs

Packet forwarding on multiple VLANs is only available on trunked (tagged VLAN) ports. Once
enabled on a port any supplicant authenticating on that port will have access to any VLANs
configured on that port.

For example, to enable the feature on switchport port1.0.2, use the following commands:

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.2
awplus(config-if)# auth multi-vlan-session

It is disabled using the following command:

awplus(config-if)# no auth multi-vlan-session

This sample configuration illustrates packet forwarding on vlan10 (the native vlan), vlan20 and
vlan30 for authenticated devices on port1.0.2.

radius-server host 192.168.1.40 key test

aaa authentication dot1x default group radius

interface port1.0.2
switchport
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk native vlan 10
switchport trunk allowed vlan add 20,30
dot1x port-control auto
dot1x control-direction in
auth host-mode multi-supplicant
auth multi-vlan-session

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Port Authentication Profiles

What are port authentication profiles

You can manage authentication configurations with port authentication profiles. Authentication
profiles are named objects that aggregate authentication configuration commands and are easy to
attach to, and detach from, an interface.

Instead of applying authentication commands directly to an interface they are applied to a profile.
This profile, which can be thought of as a template, is then attached to an interface. A single profile
can be attached to multiple interfaces, alternatively multiple profiles can be created for one or more
interfaces and attached as needed.

Using port authentication profiles

A port authentication profile is defined by using the auth profile <profile-name> command. This
command puts you into authentication profile mode. If <profile-name> does not exist it will be
created; if it does exist then any configuration changes you make will be applied to the existing
profile.

The following commands configure an authentication profile called ‘student’. If ‘student’ does not
already exist it will be created.

awplus# config terminal

awplus(config)# auth profile student
awplus(config-auth-profile)#

From the port authentication profile mode authentication configuration commands can be entered
exactly as they would be entered in interface mode. For example the following commands add
authentication configuration settings to the ‘student’ profile. This profile can then be attached to an
interface.

awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth-mac enable

awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth-web enable
awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth host-mode multi-supplicant
awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth auth-fail vlan 40
awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth dynamic-vlan-creation
awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth-web max-auth-fail 2
awplus(config-auth-profile)# exit
awplus(config)#

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A profile is attached to an interface using the auth profile <profile-name> command from the
interface mode. It can be attached to a static channel, a dynamic (LACP) channel group, or a
switch port. Attach the profile ‘student’ to interfaces port1.0.20 and port1.0.21.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.20-1.0.21

awplus(config-if)# auth profile student
awplus(config-if)# exit
awplus(config)#

Executing show running-config, on the configuration above, displays the following authentication
information for the profile and interface:

awplus#show running-config
...
!
auth profile student
auth-mac enable
auth-web enable
auth host-mode multi-supplicant
auth auth-fail vlan 40
auth dynamic-vlan-creation
auth-web max-auth-fail 2
!
...
!
interface port1.0.20-1.0.21
switchport
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan 10
auth profile student
!
...
awplus#

Any changes made to a profile is immediately applied to each interface to which it is attached.
These commands will enable reauthentication on all interfaces the ‘student’ profile is attached to.

awplus# config terminal

awplus(config)# auth profile student
awplus(config-auth-profile)# auth reauthentication
awplus(config-auth-profilr)# auth timeout reauth-period 7200

Only one profile can be attached to an interface at a time. If you try to attach a second profile an
error message will be displayed. Before attempting to attach a new profile to an interface you need
to detach the old one with the no auth profile <profile-name> command.

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For example, if you attempt to attach the profile ‘teacher’ to an interface that already has the profile
‘student’ attached an error message is thrown.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.20-1.0.21

awplus(config-if)# auth profile student
awplus(config-if)# auth profile teacher

Will fail with the message:

% port1.0.20: Need to detach old profile first

% port1.0.21: Need to detach old profile first

The correct way to attach a new profile to an interface is to first detach the old profile.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.20-1.0.21

awplus(config-if)# no auth profile student
awplus(config-if)# auth profile teacher

Port authentication interface mode commands and port authentication profiles cannot be used on
the same interface. Issuing authentication commands on an interface that already has a profile
attached results in an error, and adding a profile to an interface with an existing configuration results
in this configuration being overwritten.

In this example the command to enable two-step authentication fails as a profile is already attached
to this interface.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.20-1.0.21

awplus(config-if)# auth profile student
awplus(config-if)# auth two-step enable

Will fail with the message:

% Cannot execute individual command while profile is set on port1.0.20

Attaching the ‘student’ profile to an interface that already has two-step authentication enabled;
disables two-step authentication and displays a warning message.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.20-1.0.21

awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable
awplus(config-if)# auth two-step enable
awplus(config-if)# auth profile student

Displays the warning message:

port1.0.20: Warning: discarded existing Port-auth config before attaching the

profile.
port1.0.21: Warning: discarded existing Port-auth config before attaching the
profile.

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A profile cannot be deleted if it is still attached to an interface. An error message will be displayed if
you try and do this.

The profile ‘student’ cannot be deleted because it is still attached to port1.0.20-1.0.21:

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.20-1.0.21

awplus(config-if)# auth profile student
awplus(config-if)# exit
awplus(config)# no auth profile student

Will fail with the message:

% Need to detach the profile from all interfaces first

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 AAA and Port Authentication

DHCP Framed IP Lease

Introduction

The DHCP Framed IP Lease feature allows you to automatically configure a DHCP IP lease when a
network device is authenticated using 802.1X or MAC authentication. This makes it easier to
manage multiple network devices using a central RADIUS server to assign IP addresses and other
network settings.

This feature is useful when a network device (e.g. an IP camera) needs to be identified by its IP
address. If the device needs replacing it is important that the replacement device has the same IP
address and network configuration as the faulty one. DHCP Framed IP Lease allows you to store the
DHCP configuration for the device, along with its username and password, on the RADIUS server.
When the replacement is installed, the IP address and network configuration will be requested from
the RADIUS server by the DHCP server and then applied to the supplicant.

How does DHCP Framed IP Lease work?

The DHCP Framed IP Lease feature makes registering DHCP host configuration easier by
automatically feeding per-host DHCP configuration from the RADIUS server to the DHCP server
based on a host’s username and password.

For example, the following shows how the feature works when a supplicant first accesses the
network using 802.1X authentication.

1. The supplicant sends a username and password for 802.1X authentication.

2. The authenticator sends an Access-Request message to the RADIUS server.

3. The RADIUS server replies Access-Accept with extra ‘framed’ RADIUS attributes applicable to
that user.

4. The authenticator retrieves the framed RADIUS attributes from the Access-Accept packet and
configures DHCP for the supplicant's MAC address.

5. The authenticator sends an EAPoL-Success message to the supplicant.

6. The supplicant (as a DHCP client) starts the DHCP operation by sending a DHCP discovery
message to the DHCP server (the authenticator).

7. The DHCP server (the authenticator) sends a DHCP offer message to the supplicant. This offer is
based on the configured DHCP information retrieved from the RADIUS server in step 4.

8. The supplicant sends a DHCP request packet for the offered IP address.

9. The DHCP server sends a DHCP acknowledgement to confirm the IP address allocation.

Note: This feature relies on the authenticator being configured with the relevant DHCP server pool
for the IP address sent by RADIUS server.

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Figure 15: DHCP Framed IP Lease message sequence

Supplicant Authenticator Authentication Server

(DHCP server) (RADIUS server)
1 username and password

2 RADIUS Access-Request
RADIUS conversation
EAPoL conversation between switch and
between supplicant 3 RADIUS Access-Accept RADIUS server.
with framed attributes
and switch.
Authenticator configures
4
DHCP with framed attributes

5 EAPoL-Success

6 DHCP discovery

7 DHCP offer
DHCP conversation
between supplicant
and switch. 8 DHCP request

9 DHCP acknowledgement

Note: If configuring the DHCP server for the supplicant fails in step 4, 802.1X or MAC authentication
will continue and an EAPoL-Success packet will still be sent.

Note: If two-step authentication is enabled, and both steps are configured to contact a RADIUS
server, the Framed IP Lease configuration is extracted from the second RADIUS response. If,
however, the second authentication method is set to force-authorized, which does not require
a connection to the RADIUS server, then the configuration is extracted from the first response.

Configuring DHCP Framed IP Lease

You need to complete the following steps to configure the DHCP Framed IP Lease feature on your
network.

On the RADIUS server

1. Configure the RADIUS server with the username and password for 802.1X or MAC authentication

2. Configure the following ‘framed’ RADIUS attributes on the RADIUS server for the user:

 Framed-IP-Address (8): the IPv4 address to be configured for the user

 Framed-IP-Netmask (9): the netmask to be configured for the user

 Framed-Route (22): the default gateway IPv4 address to be configured for the user

 Session-Timeout (27): IP address lease time to be configured for the user

Note: The Frame-IP-Address (8) attribute must be configured for this feature to work. All other
attributes are optional.

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On the authenticator/DHCP server

3. Configure the RADIUS client

4. Enable 802.1X or MAC authentication on the required interface/s

5. Enable DHCP Framed IP Lease feature on the required interfaces/s

6. Setup a DHCP pool with the network range for the IP address/es registered on the RADIUS server

7. Enable DHCP server

Configuration example

This examples configures the local RADIUS server to provide ‘framed’ attributes to a network device
(such as an IP camera) using 802.1X to authenticate to the network.

On the RADIUS server

Step 1: Configure the RADIUS server with the username and password for 802.1X
authentication:
This step will depend on your RADIUS implementation. This example snippet is for a local RADIUS
server configured on an AlliedWare Plus device.

radius-server local
server enable
nas 192.168.1.10 key secret
user camera-user1 encrypted password xxxxx group dhcp-camera-user1

Step 2: Configure the ‘framed’ RADIUS attributes on the RADIUS server for the user

This snippet shows the attributes configured as part of the dhcp-camera-user1 group.

group dhcp-camera-user1
attribute Framed-IP-Address 10.1.1.111
attribute Framed-IP-Netmask 255.255.255.0
attribute Framed-Route 10.1.1.1
attribute Session-Timeout 3600

On the authenticator/DHCP server

Step 3: Configure the RADIUS client
awplus# configure terminal
awplus(config)# radius-server host 192.168.1.10 key secret

Step 4: Enable 802.1X on port1.0.1

awplus(config)# aaa authentication dot1x default group radius
awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# dot1x port-control auto

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Step 5: Enable DHCP Framed IP Lease feature on port1.0.1

awplus(config-if)# auth dhcp-framed-ip-lease
awplus(config-if)# exit

Step 6: Setup a DHCP pool

The network range must include the IP address/es registered on the RADIUS server

awplus(config)# ip dhcp pool a

awplus(dhcp-config)# network 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0
awplus(dhcp-config)# range 10.1.1.101 10.1.1.199
awplus(config)# exit

Step 7: Enable the DHCP server

awplus(config)# service dhcp-server

Disable DHCP Framed IP Lease

Use the no variant of the command to disable the feature on the required port/s. In the above
example you would use the following commands to disable DHCP Framed IP Lease on port1.0.1:

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1

awplus(config-if)# no auth dhcp-framed-ip-lease

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Monitoring your configuration

The following show commands are useful for monitoring your DHCP Framed IP Lease configuration.
These samples assume the configuration in the previous example.

Display the supplicant information using the show dot1x supplicant command. This shows the
DHCP Framed IP Lease assigned to the supplicant.

awplus# show dot1x supplicant

Interface port1.0.1
authenticationMethod: 802.1X
totalSupplicantNum: 1
authorizedSupplicantNum: 1
macBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
dot1xAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 1
webBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
otherAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0

Supplicant name: 00-00-cd-38-05-f9

Supplicant address: 0000.cd38.05f9
authenticationMethod: 802.1X
portStatus: Authorized - currentId: 1
abort:F fail:F start:F timeout:F success:T
PAE: state: Authenticated - portMode: Auto
PAE: reAuthCount: 0 - rxRespId: 0
PAE: quietPeriod: 60 - maxReauthReq: 2
BE: state: Idle - reqCount: 0 - idFromServer: 0
CD: adminControlledDirections: in - operControlledDirections: in
CD: bridgeDetected: false
KR: rxKey: false
KT: keyAvailable: false - keyTxEnabled: false
RADIUS server group (auth): radius
RADIUS server (auth): 127.0.0.1
DHCP: IP:10.1.1.111 netmask:255.255.255.0 gateway:10.1.1.1 lease:3600

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Display the status of the DHCP using the show ip dhcp pool command. This shows the supplicant
registered as a static host by the DHCP Framed IP Lease feature from AUTHD.

awplus# show ip dhcp pool

Pool a :
network: 10.1.1.0/24
address ranges:
addr: 10.1.1.101 to 10.1.1.199
(static host addr 10.1.1.111 excluded)
static host addresses:
addr: 10.1.1.111 MAC addr: 0000.cd38.05f9
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
Gateway : 10.1.1.1
Lease : 3600 seconds
Added by AUTHD
lease <days:hours:minutes:seconds> <1:0:0:0>
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 (pool's network mask)
Probe: Default Values
Status: Enabled [Enabled]
Type: Ping [Ping]
Packets: 5 [5]
Timeout: 200 msecs [200]
Dynamic addresses:
Total: 98
Leased: 0
Utilization: 0.0 %
Static host addresses:
Total: 1
Leased: 1

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 AAA and Port Authentication

Dynamic ACL Assignments with Port Authentication

Introduction

From version 5.5.0-1.1 onwards, you can configure port authentication to dynamically apply Access
Control Lists (ACLs) when a supplicant is authorized. Dynamic ACL rules are defined on the RADIUS
server for each supplicant and applied to the port after the supplicant is authorized. When the
supplicant is unauthorized these ACLs are removed from the switchport automatically.

Dynamic ACLs gives you greater control over a supplicant's network access by pairing ACLs with
802.1X, MAC, and web-based authentication. Dynamic ACLs offer the following advantages:

 They provide an easy way of applying ACLs per supplicant.

 As they are only installed when a supplicant is connected (and authorized), the number of ACLs
is kept low to avoid wasting hardware resources.

 ACLs are configured on the central RADIUS server, this means they can be applied to all switches
that use the same RADIUS server.

 Dynamic ACLs support the same filtering rules as static ACLs and will work with IP, IPv6, ICMP,
UDP, TCP, IP protocol and MAC matches.

 You can configure a mix of static and dynamic ACLs on a switch.

How does this feature work?

Dynamic ACLs are created and attached to a switchport in the following way:

 A RADIUS server holds the ACL rules for a supplicant, along with that supplicants user name and
password.

 These ACL rules can be either:

– a complete IPv4 or IPv6 hardware rule (stored as a RADIUS NAS-Filter-Rule attribute), or

– a name or number reference to an existing ACL rule (stored as a RADIUS Filter-Id attribute).

 When the first packet from a supplicant arrives on a switchport the authenticator starts the
authentication process with the RADIUS server.

 The RADIUS server returns an Access-Accept packet to the authenticator with the configured
ACL rules.

 The authenticator creates and installs these ACLs dynamically on the switchport and authorizes
the supplicant.

 These Dynamic ACLs are named IPv4 and IPv6 hardware access-lists. They are internally
maintained and cannot be removed or modified from the CLI.

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 All traffic on the switchport is filtered using these ACLs.

 When the supplicant is unauthorized, dynamically installed ACLs are removed and detached from
the switchport.

Notes:
 On VCS stacks, the dynamic ACLs are updated on all stack members.

 Dynamic ACLs are only supported on switchports and static aggregators.

 Multiple ACLs are allowed, but a mixture of complete ACL rules and numbered/named ACL rules
is not supported. This means you cannot have both NAS-Filter-Rule and Filter-Id RADIUS
attributes defined.

 Dynamically created ACLs use the following naming convention:

– For IPv4 rules, a named hardware access-list dacl-<port-name>-<MAC-address> is

created. For example dacl-port1.0.1-0000.1111.2222.

– For IPv6 rules, a named hardware access-list dacl-<port-name>-<MAC-address>-ipv6 is

created. For example dacl-port1.0.1-0000.1111.2222-ipv6.

Configuring Dynamic ACL assignments.

To use Dynamic ACLs the following configuration steps are required:

Step 1: Setup your AAA configuration.

For example, to configure MAC authentication see the “Configuring MAC authentication” section.

Step 2: Enable port authentication on the required ports.

awplus# configure terminal
awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable

Step 3: Enable Dynamic ACL on the port

Dynamic ACLs are disabled by default.

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-acl enable

Step 4: Configure dynamic ACL rules on the RADIUS server

These can be configured as complete IPv4 or IPv6 hardware rules using the NAS-Filter-Rule
RADIUS attribute or as references to existing named or numbered ACLs using the Filter-Id RADIUS
attribute.

For example, to reject IP traffic from 192.168.1.x to any destination except 192.168.2.x, define these
two rules for the user on the RADIUS server using the NAS-Filter-Rule attribute:

NAS-Filter-Rule = "ip:permit ip 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24"

NAS-Filter-Rule = "ip:deny ip 192.168.1.0/24 any"

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Alternatively, the format for defining the same ACLs using Filter-Ids could be:

Filter-Id = "3000"
Filter-Id = "3001"

where ACLs have been defined on the authenticator device as follows:

awplus(config)#access-list 3000 permit ip 192.168.1.0/24 any

awplus(config)#access-list 3001 deny ip 192.168.0.0/24 any

For more information about configuring ACLs, see the ACL Feature Overview and Configuration
Guide.

Considerations when using Dynamic ACLs

Multi-supplicant and multi-host modes
Dynamic ACLs are supported in both multi-supplicant and multi-host modes as well as single-
supplicant mode.

When multiple dynamic ACLs are installed on the same switchport, they effect all traffic coming from
all supplicants on that port. This means the ACL filter rules must be carefully configured to avoid
unexpected behavior in multi-supplicant mode.

Note: In multi-supplicant mode, dynamic ACLs are installed in the order the supplicants are
authorized. When a supplicant is unauthorized, the corresponding dynamic ACLs are
removed.

In multi-host mode (where authentication from one supplicant is enough to allow other supplicants
on the same port), it may be useful to have ACL filter rules by MAC address to reject traffic from
certain supplicants.

Roaming Authentication
Roaming authentication allows an authenticated supplicant to move from one interface to another
without authentication. In this situation the dynamic ACL filter rules will be installed on the new
interface and removed from the old interface.

If, for some reason, the dynamic ACLs fail to install on the new interface then roaming authentication
stops and the supplicant starts the reauthentication process on the new interface.

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Note: If static ACLs are already configured on the new interface then the cumulative effect of the
static and dynamic ACLs may differ from the old interface. It is recommended, therefore, that
static ACLs should be configured identically for roaming authentication.

Two-step Authentication
Two-step authentication involves two different authentication methods, for example MAC
authentication and 802.1X authentication. Dynamic ACL filter rules are taken from the last RADIUS
response to an authentication request. Normally this is the RADIUS response for the second
authentication method. If, however, the supplicant is configured with the skip-second-auth option,
then the RADIUS response for the first authentication method is used.

Configuration example
Configure Dynamic ACLs

Dynamic ACLs are enabled in Interface Configuration mode and work with all port authentication
methods (802.1X, MAC and web-based authentication).

Step 1: Define the RADIUS server to use.

For example, to use the local RADIUS-server.

awplus# configure terminal

awplus(config)# radius-server host 127.0.0.1 key awplus-local-radius-
server

Step 2: Define the authentication method list.

For example, configure MAC authentication.

awplus(config)# aaa authentication auth-mac default group radius

Step 3: Enable MAC authentication on the interface.

awplus(config)# interface port1.0.1
awplus(config-if)# auth-mac enable

Step 4: Enable Dynamic ACLs on the interfaces

awplus(config-if)# auth dynamic-acl enable
awplus(config-if)# exit

Configure the local RADIUS Server

Dynamic ACLs are defined on the RADIUS server. This can be an external server, like FreeRADIUS
server, or your local RADIUS server on the same device.

On the local RADIUS server, dynamic ACLs are defined in a group. This group is then assigned to
the users.

Step 5: Configure the local RADIUS server.

awplus(config)# radius-server local

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Step 6: Define a group with the required ACL rules.

These ACL rules will to reject IP traffic from 192.168.1.x to any destination except 192.168.2.x

awplus(config-radsrv)# group dacl-rule

awplus(config-radsrv-group)# attribute repeated NAS-Filter-Rule "ip:permit
ip 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24"
awplus(config-radsrv-group)# attribute repeated NAS-Filter-Rule "ip:deny
ip 192.168.1.0/24 any"
awplus(config-radsrv-group)# exit

Step 7: Add a user with the dynamic ACL rules.

awplus(config-radsrv)# user xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx password xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-x
group dacl-rule

Step 8: Enable the local RADIUS server.

awplus(config-radsrv)# server enable

Monitoring your configuration

Dynamically created ACLs are displayed using the show access-list command. The label
‘(dynamic)’ is added to the end of the access-list name to differentiate them from statically added
ACLs.

awplus# show access-list

Hardware IP access list 3000
4 permit ip any any
Hardware IP access list 3001
4 deny ip 192.168.0.0/24 any
Hardware IP access list dacl-port1.0.49-eccd.6dc9.c0d2 (dynamic)
4 permit ip 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24
8 deny ip 192.168.1.0/24 any
Hardware IPv6 access list dacl-port1.0.49-eccd.6dc9.c0d2-ipv6 (dynamic)
4 deny ipv6 any any

The show interface <port-list> access-group command shows all the ACLs installed on an
interface.

awplus# show interface port1.0.49 access-group

Interface port1.0.49
access-group dacl-port1.0.49-eccd.6dc9.c0d2
access-group dacl-port1.0.49-eccd.6dc9.c0d2-ipv6

C613-22088-00 REV J Dynamic ACL Assignments with Port Authentication | Page 91

ACLs statically configured from the CLI appear in show running-config and show interface
access-group output. Dynamically installed ACLs, however, only appear in the show interface
access-group output.

awplus# show running-config interface port1.0.49

interface port1.0.49
switchport
switchport mode access
auth-mac enable
auth host-mode multi-supplicant
auth dynamic-acl enable

Dynamic ACLs are stored in the supplicant configuration and removed when the supplicant is
unauthorized. The show auth supplicant command has a ‘dynamicACL Rules’ section to show
these ACLs
.

awplus# show auth supplicant

Interface port1.0.49
authenticationMethod: mac
totalSupplicantNum: 1
authorizedSupplicantNum: 1
macBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 1
dot1xAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
webBasedAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0
otherAuthenticationSupplicantNum: 0

Supplicant name: ec-cd-6d-c9-c0-d2

Supplicant address: eccd.6dc9.c0d2
authenticationMethod: MAC-based Authentication
portStatus: Authorized - currentId: 1
abort:F fail:F start:F timeout:F success:T
PAE: state: Authenticated - portMode: Auto
PAE: reAuthCount: 0 - rxRespId: 0
PAE: quietPeriod: 60 - maxReauthReq: 2
BE: state: Idle - reqCount: 0 - idFromServer: 0
CD: adminControlledDirections: in - operControlledDirections: in
CD: bridgeDetected: false
KR: rxKey: false
KT: keyAvailable: false - keyTxEnabled: false
RADIUS server group (auth): radius
RADIUS server (auth): 127.0.0.1
Session timeout enabled: No
dynamicACL Rules:
ip:permit ip 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24
ip:deny ip 192.168.1.0/24 any
ipv6:deny ipv6 any any

C613-22088-00 REV J

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