Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence
Focus
Focus

Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence

Table of Contents

Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence

An authentication profile defines the authentication service that validates the login credentials of administrators who access the firewall web interface and end users who access applications through Authentication Portal or GlobalProtect. The service can be Local Authentication that the firewall provides or External Authentication Services. The authentication profile also defines options such as Kerberos single sign-on (SSO).
Some networks have multiple databases (such as TACACS+ and LDAP) for different users and user groups. To authenticate users in such cases, configure an authentication sequence—a ranked order of authentication profiles that the firewall matches a user against during login. The firewall checks against each profile in sequence until one successfully authenticates the user. A user is denied access only if authentication fails for all the profiles in the sequence. The sequence can specify authentication profiles that are based on any authentication service that the firewall supports excepts Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and SAML.
  1. (
    External service only
    ) Enable the firewall to connect to an external server for authenticating users:
    1. Set up the external server. Refer to your server documentation for instructions.
    2. Configure a server profile for the type of authentication service you use.
      If the firewall integrates with an MFA service through RADIUS, you must add a RADIUS server profile. In this case, the MFA service provides all the authentication factors. If the firewall integrates with an MFA service through a vendor API, you can still use a RADIUS server profile for the first factor but MFA server profiles are required for additional factors.
  2. (
    Local database authentication only
    ) Configure a user database that is local to the firewall.
    Perform these steps for each user and user group for which you want to configure Local Authentication based on a user identity store that is local to the firewall:
  3. (
    Kerberos SSO only
    ) Create a Kerberos keytab for the firewall if Kerberos single sign-on (SSO) is the primary authentication service.
    Create a Kerberos keytab. A keytab is a file that contains Kerberos account information for the firewall. To support Kerberos SSO, your network must have a Kerberos infrastructure.
  4. Configure an authentication profile.
    Define one or both of the following:
    • Kerberos SSO
      —The firewall first tries SSO authentication. If that fails, it falls back to the specified authentication
      Type
      .
    • External authentication or local database authentication
      —The firewall prompts the user to enter login credentials, and uses an external service or local database to authenticate the user.
    1. Select
      Device
      Authentication Profile
      and
      Add
      the authentication profile.
    2. Enter a
      Name
      to identify the authentication profile.
    3. Select the
      Type
      of authentication service.
      • If you use Multi-Factor Authentication, the selected type applies only to the first authentication factor. You select services for additional MFA factors in the
        Factors
        tab.
      • If you select
        RADIUS
        ,
        TACACS+
        ,
        LDAP
        , or
        Kerberos
        , select the
        Server Profile
        .
      • If you select
        LDAP
        , select the
        Server Profile
        and define the
        Login Attribute
        . For Active Directory, enter
        sAMAccountName
        as the value.
      • If you select
        SAML
        , select the
        IdP Server Profile
        .
      • If you select
        Cloud Authentication Service
        , configure a Cloud Identity Engine instance to communicate with the firewall. For more information on the Cloud Identity Engine, see the Cloud Identity Engine Getting Started guide.
    4. If you want to enable Kerberos SSO, enter the
      Kerberos Realm
      (usually the DNS domain of the users, except that the realm is UPPERCASE) and
      Import
      the
      Kerberos Keytab
      that you created for the firewall or Panorama.
    5. (
      MFA only
      ) Select
      Factors
      ,
      Enable Additional Authentication Factors
      , and
      Add
      the MFA server profiles you configured.
      The firewall will invoke each MFA service in the listed order, from top to bottom.
    6. Select
      Advanced
      and
      Add
      the users and groups that can authenticate with this profile.
      You can select users and groups from the local database or, if you configured the firewall to Map Users to Groups, from an LDAP-based directory service such as Active Directory. By default, the list is empty, meaning no users can authenticate.
      You can also select custom groups defined in a group mapping configuration.
    7. (
      Optional
      ) To modify the user information before the firewall sends the authentication request to the server, configure a
      Username Modifier
      .
      • %USERDOMAIN%\%USERINPUT%
        —If the source does not include the domain (for example, it uses the sAMAccountName), the firewall adds the
        User Domain
        you specify before the username. If the source includes the domain, the firewall replaces that domain with the
        User Domain
        . If the
        User Domain
        is empty, the firewall removes the domain from the user information that the firewall receives from source before the firewall sends the request to the authentication server.
        Because LDAP servers do not support backslashes in the sAMAccountName, do not use this option to authenticate with an LDAP server.
      • %USERINPUT%
        —(Default) The firewall sends the user information to the authentication server in the format it receives from the source.
      • %USERINPUT%@%USERDOMAIN%
        —If the source does not include the domain, the firewall adds the
        User Domain
        value after the username. If the source includes domain, the firewall replaces that domain with the
        User Domain
        value. If the
        User Domain
        is empty, the firewall removes the domain from the user information that the firewall receives from the source before the firewall sends the request to the authentication server.
      • None
        —If you manually enter
        None
        :
        • For LDAP and Kerberos server profiles, the firewall uses the domain it receives from the source to select the appropriate authentication profile, then removes the domain when it sends the authentication request to the server. This allows you to include the
          User Domain
          during the authentication sequence but remove the domain before the firewall sends the authentication request to the server. For example, if you are using an LDAP server profile and the samAccountName as the attribute, use this option so that the firewall does not send the domain to the authentication server that expects only a username and not a domain.
        • For RADIUS server profiles:
          • If the source sends the user information in
            domain\username
            format, the firewall sends the user information to the server in the same format.
          • If the source sends the user information in
            username@domain
            format, the firewall normalizes the user information to the
            domain\username
            format before sending it to the server.
          • If the source sends only the username, the firewall adds the
            User Domain
            you specify before sending the information to the server in
            domain\username
            format.
        • For local databases, TACACS+, and SAML, the firewall sends the user information to the authentication server in the format it receives from the source.
    8. Click
      OK
      to save the authentication profile.
  5. Configure an authentication sequence.
    Required if you want the firewall to try multiple authentication profiles to authenticate users. The firewall evaluates the profiles in top-to-bottom order until one profile successfully authenticates the user.
    1. Select
      Device
      Authentication Sequence
      and
      Add
      the authentication sequence.
    2. Enter a
      Name
      to identify the authentication sequence.
      To expedite the authentication process,
      Use domain to determine authentication profile
      : the firewall matches the domain name that a user enters during login with the
      User Domain
      or
      Kerberos Realm
      of an authentication profile in the sequence, and then uses that profile to authenticate the user. If the firewall does not find a match, or if you disable the option, the firewall tries the profiles in the top-to-bottom sequence.
    3. Add
      each authentication profile. To change the evaluation order of the profiles, select a profile and
      Move Up
      or
      Move Down
      .
    4. Click
      OK
      to save the authentication sequence.
  6. Assign the authentication profile or sequence to an administrative account for firewall administrators or to Authentication policy for end users.
    • Administrators
      —Assign the authentication profile based on how you manager administrator authorization:
      Authorization managed locally on the firewall—Configure a Firewall Administrator Account.
      Authorization managed on a SAML, TACACS+, or RADIUS server—Select
      Device
      Setup
      Management
      , edit the Authentication Settings, and select the
      Authentication Profile
      .
  7. Verify that the firewall can Test Authentication Server Connectivity to authenticate users.

Recommended For You