Remote Access VPN (Certificate Profile)

With certificate authentication, the client must present a valid client certificate that identifies the user to the GlobalProtect portal or gateway. In addition to the certificate itself, the portal or gateway can use a certificate profile to determine whether the client that sent the certificate is the client to which the certificate was issued.

When a client certificate is the only means of authentication, the certificate that the client presents must contain the username in one of the certificate fields; typically the username corresponds to the common name (CN) in the Subject field of the certificate.

Upon successful authentication, the GlobalProtect agent establishes a VPN tunnel with the gateway and is assigned an IP address from the IP pool in the gateway’s tunnel configuration. To support user-based policy enforcement on sessions from the corp-vpn zone, the username from the certificate is mapped to the IP address that the gateway assigned. Also, if a security policy requires a domain name in addition to user name, the specified domain value in the certificate profile is appended to the username.

This quick configuration uses the same topology as GlobalProtect VPN for Remote Access. The only configuration difference is that instead of authenticating users against an external authentication server, this configuration uses client certificate authentication only.

Create Interfaces and Zones for GlobalProtect.
Use the
default
virtual router for all interface configurations to avoid having to create inter-zone routing.
Select
Network
Interfaces
Ethernet
and configure ethernet1/2 as a Layer 3 Ethernet interface with IP address
203.0.113.1
and assign it to the l3-untrust security zone and the default virtual router.
Create a DNS “A” record that maps IP address
203.0.113.1
to
gp.acme.com
.
Select
Network
Interfaces
Tunnel
.
Add tunnel.2 interface to a new zone called
corp-vpn
. Assign the interface to the default virtual router.
Enable User Identification on the corp-vpn zone.
Create security policy to enable traffic flow between the corp-vpn zone and the l3-trust zone to enable access to your internal resources.
Select

Policies

Security

and then

Add

a new rule.

For this example, you would define the rule with the following settings:

Name—
VPN Access
Source Zone—
corp-vpn
Destination Zone—
l3-trust


Obtain a server certificate for the interface hosting the GlobalProtect portal and gateway using one of the following methods:
(
Recommended
) Import a server certificate from a well-known, third-party CA.
Use the root CA on the portal to generate a self-signed server certificate.
Select
Device
Certificate Management
Certificates
to manage certificates as follows:
Obtain a server certificate. Because the portal and gateway are on the same interface, the same server certificate can be used for both components.
The CN of the certificate must match the FQDN,
gp.acme.com
.
To enable clients to connect to the portal without receiving certificate errors, use a server certificate from a public CA.
Issue client certificates to GlobalProtect clients and endpoints.
Use your enterprise PKI or a public CA to issue a unique client certificate to each GlobalProtect user.
Install certificates in the personal certificate store on the endpoints.
Create a client certificate profile.
Select
Device
Certificate Management
Certificate Profile
, click
Add
and enter a profile
Name
such as
GP-client-cert
.
Select
Subject
from the
Username Field
drop-down.
Click
Add
in the CA Certificates section, select the
CA Certificate
that issued the client certificates, and click
OK
twice.
Configure a GlobalProtect Gateway.
See the topology diagram shown in GlobalProtect VPN for Remote Access.
Select
Network
GlobalProtect
Gateways
and add the following configuration:
Interface
—
ethernet1/2
IP Address
—
203.0.113.1
Server Certificate
—
GP-server-cert.pem issued by GoDaddy
Certificate Profile
—
GP-client-cert
Tunnel Interface
—
tunnel.2
IP Pool
—
10.31.32.3 - 10.31.32.118
Configure the GlobalProtect Portals.
Select
Network
GlobalProtect
Portals
and add the following configuration:
Set Up Access to the GlobalProtect Portal:
Interface
—
ethernet1/2
IP Address
—
203.0.113.1
Server Certificate
—
GP-server-cert.pem issued by GoDaddy
Certificate Profile
—
GP-client-cert
Define the GlobalProtect Agent Configurations:
Connect Method
—
On-demand
(Manual user initiated connection)
External Gateway Address
—
gp.acme.com
Deploy the GlobalProtect Agent Software.
Select
Device
GlobalProtect Client
.
In this example, use the procedure to Host Agent Updates on the Portal.
(
Optional
) Enable use of the GlobalProtect mobile app.
Purchase and install a GlobalProtect subscription (
Device
Licenses
) to enable use of the app.
Save the GlobalProtect configuration.
Click
Commit
.