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Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA) for Cisco Routers and Switches

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Two Factor Authentication (2FA) or Multifactor Authentication is the process of the authentication in which you have to provide two factors to gain the access. First Factor is the one that you know username and password and Second factor is what you might have as unique like a phone (For OTP) or Fingerprint. This additional layer prevents the unauthorized person from accessing the resources even if they know your username and password. miniOrange provides 15+ authentication methods and solutions for various use cases. TACACS+ provides better authentication, authorization and accounting, which allows for more flexible administrative control. In this guide, we will learn how to configure TACACS+ on Cisco routers and switches.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)/MFA for Cisco Routers and Switches Client to extend security level.

1. Add the TACACS Client in miniOrange

• Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
• Click on Customization in the left menu of the dashboard.
• In Basic Settings, set the Organization Name as the custom_domain name.
• Click Save. Once that is set, the branded login URL would be of the format https://<custom_domain>.xecurify.com/moas/login



• Go to Apps Click on Add Application button.



• Choose TACACS as Application type and click on Create App button.



• Click on Cisco Routers and Switches application tab. If you don't find your application click on Custom TACACS Client application tab.




Client Name:	Any name for your reference.
Client IP:	IP address of network device which will send TACACS authentication request.
Shared Secret:	Security key. For Eg. "sharedsecret" (Keep this with you, you will need to configure same on TACACS client).

• Click Next.
• If you want to authenticate your users from Identity Provider other than the default Identity Provider, navigate to Advanced Settings tab. Select your preferred Identity Provider under Primary Identity Provider section. To add your identity providers in miniOrange IDP, follow this guide.



• Click on Save button.



• Configure the following Policy details for the TACACS Client.

Group Name:	Group for which the policy will apply.
Policy Name:	Any Identifier that specifies policy name.
Login Method	Login Method for the users associated with this policy.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication	Enables Second Factor during Login for users associated with this policy.
Enable Adaptive Authentication	Enables Adaptive Authentication for Login of users associated with this policy.

• After configuring the given above details, Click on Save button.
• Copy and save the TACACS server IPs which will be required to configure your TACACS client.
NOTE: For On-Premise version follow the below steps before testing the connectivity.



Only For On-Premise Version

Open Firewall Ports.

• In order to receive the TACACS request, it is necessary to open TCP traffic on port 49 for the machine where On-Premise IdP is deployed.
• If the hosting machine is a Windows Machine then you can follow this document.
• If the hosting machine is a Linux Machine then you can follow this document.

NOTE: If your machine is hosted on AWS, then enable the ports from the AWS panel.

2. Configure Authentication for Cisco via TACACS

• Higher Versions
• 2960 series or lower versions

• First of all, we will enable AAA service on the device by running below command:
aaa new-model

• Then, we will define our tacacs server by below commands:
tacacs server miniOrange
address ipv4 tacacs-server-ip
key shared-secret
aaa group server tacacs+ miniOrange-tacacs-group
server name miniOrange
aaa authentication login AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authentication enable default group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization exec AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization commands 0 AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization commands 1 AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization commands 15 AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization config-commands

• We are calling AAA as our main authentication server. In addition to that, if it fails, we will go back to local credentials.
• Check your number of vty lines and add the below command accordingly.
line vty 0 20
authorization commands 0 AAA
authorization commands 1 AAA
authorization commands 15 AAA
authorization exec AAA
login authentication AAA
• Test command: test aaa group tacacs+ admin Krakow123 legacy

• First of all, we will enable AAA service on the device by running below command:
tacacs-server host hostname/ip address of tacacs server
aaa new-model
aaa group server tacacs+ group-name
server ip-address
end
show running-config
copy running-config startup-config
aaa authentication enable default group tacacs+ enable
aaa authorization exec default group tacacs+ local if-authenticated
aaa authorization exec default group tacacs+ local
aaa authentication login default group tacacs+ local
• We are calling AAA as our main authentication server. In addition to that, if it fails, we will go back to local credentials.
• Check your number of vty lines and add the below command accordingly.
line vty 0 4
authorization commands 0 AAA
authorization commands 1 AAA
authorization commands 15 AAA
authorization exec AAA
login authentication AAA

3 . Configure Authorization for Cisco via TACACS

• Enable the TACACS+ Authorization.
aaa authorization exec AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization commands 0 AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization commands 1 AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization commands 15 AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization config-commands

4. Configure Your User Directory

miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Okta, Shibboleth, Ping, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.

• Setup AD/LDAP as User Directory
• Setup miniOrange as User Directory

Configure your existing directories such as Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, OpenLDAP, etc.

• Click on External Directories >> Add Directory in the left menu of the dashboard.



• Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.



1. STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If active directory is behind a firewall, you will need to open the firewall to allow incoming requests to your AD.
2. STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION ON PREMISE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in your premise and only allow access to AD inside premises. You will have to download and install miniOrange gateway in your premise.




• Enter LDAP Display Name and LDAP Identifier name.
• Select Directory Type as Active Directory.
• Enter the LDAP Server URL or IP Address against LDAP Server URL field.
• Click on Test Connection button to verify if you have made a successful connection with your LDAP server.



• In Active Directory, go to the properties of user containers/OU's and search for Distinguished Name attribute.



• Enter the valid Bind account Password.
• Click on Test Bind Account Credentials button to verify your LDAP Bind credentials for LDAP connection.



• Search Base is the location in the directory where the search for a user begins. You will get this from the same place you got your Distinguished name.



• Select a suitable Search filter from the drop-down menu. If you use User in Single Group Filter or User in Multiple Group Filter, replace the <group-dn> in the search filter with the distinguished name of the group in which your users are present. To use custom Search Filter select "Write your Custom Filter" option and customize it accordingly.



• You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Save button to add user store.




Here's the list of the attributes and what it does when we enable it. You can enable/disable accordingly.

Attribute	Description
Activate LDAP	All user authentications will be done with LDAP credentials if you Activate it
Sync users in miniOrange	Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP
Fallback Authentication	If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange
Allow users to change password	This allows your users to change their password. It updates the new credentials in your LDAP server
Enable administrator login	On enabling this, your miniOrange Administrator login authenticates using your LDAP server
Show IdP to users	If you enable this option, this IdP will be visible to users
Send Configured Attributes	If you enable this option, then only the attributes configured below will be sent in attributes at the time of login



• Click on Save. After this, it will show you the list of User stores. Click on Test Connection to check whether you have enter valid details. For that, it will ask for username and password.



• On Successful connection with LDAP Server, a success message is shown.
• Click on Test Attribute Mapping.



• Enter a valid Username. Then, click on Test. Mapped Attributes corresponding to the user are fetched.



• After successful Attribute Mapping Configuration, go back to the ldap configuration and enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP.

Refer our guide to setup LDAPS on windows server.

User Import and Provisioning from AD

Note: Below steps are used to enable one time or manual sync. To enable sync on scheduled basis, you should use LDAP gateway module. Read more and download the LDAP gateway module.

• Go to Settings >> Product Settings in the Customer Admin Account.



• Enable the "Enable User Auto Registration" option and click Save.



• (Optional) To send a welcome email to all the end users that will be imported, enable the "Enable sending Welcome Emails after user registration" option and click Save.



• From the Left-Side menu of the dashboard select Provisioning.



• In Setup Provisioning tab select Active Directory in the Select Application drop-down.
• Toggle the Import Users tab, click on Save button.



• On the same section, switch to Import Users section.
• Select Active Directory from the dropdown and click on the Import Users tab, to import all the users from Active Directory to miniOrange.



• You can view all the Users you have imports by selecting Users >> User List from Left Panel.



• All the imported users will be auto registered.
• These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.

• To add your users in miniOrange there are 2 ways:

1. Create User in miniOrange

2. Bulk Upload Users

1. Create User in miniOrange

• Click on Users >> User List >> Add User.



• Here, fill the user details without the password and then click on the Create User button.



• After successful user creation a notification message "An end user is added successfully" will be displayed at the top of the dashboard.



• Click on Onboarding Status tab. Check the email, with the registered e-mail id and select action Send Activation Mail with Password Reset Link from Select Action dropdown list and then click on Apply button.



• Now, Open your email id. Open the mail you get from miniOrange and then click on the link to set your account password.
• On the next screen, enter the password and confirm password and then click on the Single Sign-On (SSO) reset password button.



• Now, you can log in into miniOrange account by entering your credentials.

2. Bulk Upload Users in miniOrange via Uploading CSV File.

• Navigate to Users >> User List. Click on Add User button.



• In Bulk User Registration Download sample csv format from our console and edit this csv file according to the instructions.



• To bulk upload users, choose the file make sure it is in comma separated .csv file format then click on Upload.



• After uploading the csv file successfully, you will see a success message with a link.
• Click on that link you will see list of users to send activation mail. Select users to send activation mail and click on Send Activation Mail. An activation mail will be sent to the selected users.

Creating User Groups (Recommended)

• AD user group
• miniOrange user group

• This step involves Importing the user group from the Active Directory and Provisioning them.
• Go to Provisioning. Switch to Setup Provisioning tab and select Active Directory from Dropdown menu.



• Select Group Provisioning/Deprovisioning tab, and toggle on Import Group option.
• Enter the Base DN for group sync and click Save.



• If you want to dynamically allocate users to the groups present in the miniOrange, then enable "Assign Users to groups"



• Now switch to Import Groups option and select Active Directory from which you want to import your users.
• Finally, click on Import button. Your group will be imported.




(The Active Directory Group Provisioning (Sync) setup is done. Now, whenever a user is created or modified in LDAP server and if the Assign Users to groups is enabled, then user group attribute from the LDAP server will be automatically synced and the user group will be assigned or changed accordingly in miniOrange.)

• Select Groups >> Manage Groups from left panel.
• Click on the Create Group button on the top.



• Enter an appropriate Group Name and click on Create Group.



• In this guide we have created a Group by name VPN_Group.
• Assign various members to the group using the Assign User option associated with the group in the groups list.



• Select the Users that are required to be assigned to this group. Then Select Assign to Group in Select Action Dropdown and click on Apply button.



• These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.

5. Setup MFA for Cisco Routers and Switches

• Here, we will configure a policy for the User Group that we created in this step and associate it with the Cisco Routers and Switches VPN Application.
• Click on Policies tab >> App Login Policy.



• Click on Add Policy tab.
• In Application section, select the TACACS App that we configured earlier in Step 1.
• Select the required User Group in Group Name and enter the Policy name.
• In this guide, we will configure a Password Only policy for "VPN_Group", so that only the VPN_Group members can access VPN Services without a Second Factor.
• Once done with the policy settings, click on Save to Add Policy.

6. Test miniOrange 2FA for Cisco Login

• Connect to Cisco.
• Enter Username and Password.
• It will prompt you for second factor(if enabled from miniorange admin panel), Enter your 2FA code and you should be connected to Cisco.

Further References

• Multi-Factor authentication
• Adaptive Multi-Factor authentication
• ASD Essential 8 Security Compliance