Set Up LDAP Authentication

Set Up LDAP Authentication

1. Create a server profile.

   The server profile identifies the external authentication service and instructs the firewall how to connect to that authentication service and access the authentication credentials for your users.

   When you use LDAP to connect to Active Directory (AD), you must create a separate LDAP server profile for every AD domain.

   1. Select DeviceServer ProfilesLDAP, and then Add an LDAP server profile.
   2. Enter a Profile Name, such as GP-User-Auth.
   3. If this profile is for a firewall with multiple virtual systems capability, select a virtual system or Shared as the Location where the profile is available.
   4. Click Add in the Server List area, and then enter the necessary information for connecting to the authentication server, including the server Name, IP address or FQDN of the LDAP Server, and Port.
   5. Select the LDAP server Type.
   6. Enter the Bind DN and Password to enable the authentication service to authenticate the firewall.
   7. (Optional) If you want the endpoint to use SSL or TLS for a more secure connection with the directory server, enable the option to Require SSL/TLS secured connection (enabled by default). The protocol that the endpoint uses depends on the server port:

      • 389 (default)—TLS (Specifically, the device uses the StartTLS operation, which upgrades the initial plaintext connection to TLS).
      • 636—SSL.
      • Any other port—The device first attempts to use TLS. If the directory server does not support TLS, the device falls back to SSL.
   8. (Optional) For additional security, enable to the option to Verify Server Certificate for SSL sessions so that the endpoint verifies the certificate that the directory server presents for SSL/TLS connections. To enable verification, you must also enable the option to Require SSL/TLS secured connection. For verification to succeed, the certificate must meet one of the following conditions:

      • It's in the list of device certificates: DeviceCertificate ManagementCertificatesDevice Certificates. If necessary, import the certificate into the device.
      • The certificate signer is in the list of trusted certificate authorities: DeviceCertificate ManagementCertificatesDefault Trusted Certificate Authorities.
   9. Click OK to save the server profile.
2. (Optional) Create an authentication profile.

   The authentication profile specifies the server profile that the portal or gateways use when they authenticate users. On a portal or gateway, you can assign one or more authentication profiles to one or more client authentication profiles. For descriptions of how an authentication profile within a client authentication profile supports granular user authentication, see Configure a GlobalProtect Gateway and Set Up Access to the GlobalProtect Portal.

   To enable users to connect and change their expired passwords without administrative intervention, consider using Remote Access VPN with Pre-Logon.

   If a user’s password expires, you can assign a temporary LDAP password to enable them to log in to GlobalProtect. In this case, the temporary password may be used to authenticate to the portal, but the gateway login can fail because the same temporary password can't be reused. To prevent this issue, configure an authentication override in the portal configuration (NetworkGlobalProtectPortal) to enable the GlobalProtect app to use a cookie to authenticate to the portal and the temporary password to authenticate to the gateway.

   1. Select DeviceAuthentication Profile, and then Add a new profile.
   2. Enter a Name for the profile.
   3. Set the Authentication Type to LDAP.
   4. Select the LDAP authentication Server Profile that you created in step 1.
   5. Enter sAMAccountName as the Login Attribute.
   6. Set the Password Expiry Warning to specify the number of days before password expiration that users are notified. By default, users are notified seven days prior to password expiration (range is 1-255). Because users must change their passwords before the end of the expiration period, you must provide a notification period that is adequate for your users in order to ensure continued access to GlobalProtect. To use this feature, you must specify one of the following LDAP server types in your LDAP server profile: active-directory, e-directory, or sun.

      Unless you enable pre-logon, users can't access GlobalProtect when their passwords expire.
   7. Specify the User Domain and Username Modifier. The endpoint combines the User Domain and Username Modifier values to modify the domain and username string that a user enters during login. The endpoint uses the modified string for authentication and the User Domain value for User-ID group mapping. Modifying user input is useful when the authentication service requires domainusername strings in a particular format but you don't want to rely on users to enter the domain correctly. You can select from the following options:

      • To send only the unmodified user input, leave the User Domain blank (the default) and set the Username Modifier to the variable %USERINPUT% (the default).
      • To prepend a domain to the user input, enter a User Domain and set the Username Modifier to %USERDOMAIN%\%USERINPUT%.
      • To append a domain to the user input, enter a User Domain and set the Username Modifier to %USERINPUT%@%USERDOMAIN%.

      If the Username Modifier includes the %USERDOMAIN% variable, the User Domain value replaces any domain string that the user enters. If the User Domain is blank, the device removes any user-entered domain string.
   8. On the Advanced tab, Add an Allow List to select the users and user groups that are allowed to authenticate with this profile. The all option allows every user to authenticate with this profile. By default, the list has no entries, which means no users can authenticate.
   9. Click OK.
3. Commit the configuration.

   Click Commit.