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Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA) for Netgate pfsense


Netgate pfsense is an open source firewall/router computer software distribution based on FreeBSD. It is installed on a physical computer or a virtual machine to make a dedicated firewall/router for a network. You can enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your Netgate pfsense to increase security level. When you enable 2FA, your users enter their username and password (first factor) as usual, and they have to enter an authentication code (the second factor) which will share on your virtual or hardware 2FA solution to get access to netgate pfsense.


miniOrange MFA/2FA authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN Login

miniOrange accomplishes this by acting as a RADIUS server that accepts the username/password of the user entered as a RADIUS request and validates the user against the user store as Active Directory (AD). After the first level of authentication, miniOrange prompts the user with 2-factor authentication and either grants/revokes access based on the input by the user.


MFA for Netgate pfsense VPN

  1. Primary authentication initiates with the user submitting his Username and Password for Netgate pfsense VPN.
  2. User request acts as an authentication request to RADIUS Server(miniOrange).
  3. miniOrange RADIUS server passes user credentials to validate against the credentials stored in AD (Active Directory) / Database.
  4. Once the user's first level of authentication gets validated AD sends the confirmation to RADIUS Server.
  5. Now miniOrange RADIUS Server asks for a 2-factor authentication challenge to the user.
  6. Here user submits the response/code which he receives on his hardware/phone.
  7. User response is checked at miniOrange’s RADIUS Server side.
  8. On successful 2nd factor authentication the user is granted access to login.

Connect with any External Directories


miniOrange provides user authentication from various external directories such as miniOrange Directory, Microsoft AD, Microsoft Entra ID/LDAP, AWS Cognito and many more.

Can't find your Directory? Contact us on idpsupport@xecurify.com



Get Free POC - Book a Slot


miniOrange offers free POC and help through a consultation call with our System Engineers to Setup Multi-Factor Authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN in your environment with 30-day trial.

For this, you need to just send us an email at idpsupport@xecurify.com to get free POC and we'll help you setting up our solution in no time.


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Enable Multi Factor Authentication MFA/2FA for Netgate pfsense VPN

1. Configure Netgate pfsense VPN 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
  • Multi Factor authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN : setting up branding

  • Go to Apps Click on Add Application button.
  • MFA for Netgate pfsense VPN: Add Application

  • In Choose Application, select RADIUS (VPN) from the application type dropdown.
  • Two-Factor authentication (2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Create Radius Application

  • Click on Netgate pfsense VPN application tab. If you don't find your application click on Radius Client application tab.
  • MFA for Netgate pfsense VPN : Click on Radius Client

  • Click on "Click here" to get the Radius server IPs.
  • 2FA for Netgate pfsense VPN : Documentation section

  • Copy and save the Radius server IP which will be required to configure your Radius client.
  • 2FA/MFA for Netgate pfsense VPN : Radius server IPs

  • Configure the below details to add Radius Client.
  • Two-Factor authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN : Add Radius Client

    Client Name: Any name for your reference.
    Client IP: IP address of VPN server which will send Radius authentication request.
    Shared Secret: Security key.
    For Eg. "sharedsecret"
    (Keep this with you, you will need to configure same on VPN Server).
  • Click Next.
  • Under the Attribute Mappings tab, enable the toggle if you want to Send Custom Attributes in response.
  • Multi-Factor Authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN : Click Next

  • To send groups in response, you can refer the below table for Vendor group attributes id.
    Vendor Name Vendor Attribute Value Type Attribute
    Cisco ASA ASA-Group_policy User Groups
    Fortinet Fortinet-Group-Name User Groups
    Palo Alto PaloAlto-user-Group User Groups
    SonicWall Sonicwall-user-group User Groups
    Citrix Citrix-user-groups User Groups
    Default(Can be used if your vendor is not in the list) Filter-Id User Groups
  • Value Type and Attribute can be changed based on the requirement.
  • Click on Next to proceed.
  • Configure the following Policy details for the Radius Client.
  • MFA for Netgate pfsense VPN : Select your Radius 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.
  • Note: You can follow this guide, if you want to configure Radius MFA using MSCHAPv2 protocol.

    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 RADIUS request, it is necessary to open UDP traffic on ports 1812 and 1813 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 OpenVPN with Netgate pfsense (Optional)

    Note: pfsense is a firewall which usually works with other VPN clients. You'll need a VPN client to setup 2fa with Netgate pfsense. You can connect OpenVPN and IPsec VPN among others.


  • To Setup OpenVPN with pfsense, go to this document.

Configure Netgate pfsense with miniOrange

  • On the Netgate pfsense Server login to the web interface.
  • Go to the System → User Manager.
  • Switch to the Authentication Servers tab. Click Add.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Add Server

  • Fill in the form. Refer to the following image and table for more information about the settings. Click Save to add the Authentication Server.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Add Server

    Descriptive name Specify any name you like.
    Type Always select RADIUS.
    Protocol Select PAP
    Hostname or IP address Enter the hostname or IP address of Radius server of miniOrange that you got from Step 1.
    Shared Secret Shared Secret used while app creation in miniOrange.
    Services offered Change to Authentication.
    Authentication port 1812
    Accounting port N/A. Leave the default value.
    Authentication Timeout Change to 60
    RADIUS NAS IP Attribute Enter the IP to use for the “NAS-IP-Address” attribute during RADIUS Access-Requests.
  • Click Save.
  • Go to VPN → OpenVPN. Find your interface on the OpenVPN Server list. Click the pen icon on the right.
  •  Openvpn server list

  • Switch to the Servers tab. Make sure Server mode is set to Remote Access (User Auth).
  • Make sure Backend for authentication is set to the Authentication Server you created in step4.
  •  Two-factor authentication (2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Authentication Server

  • Other settings depend on your personal needs. Click Save to save the changes.

3. 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.

Note: You can follow this guide, if you want to configure Radius MFA with your users stored in Microsoft Entra ID using OAuth Password Grant.



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.
  •  2FA: Configure User Store

  • Select Directory type as AD/LDAP.
  •  2FA: Select AD/LDAP as user store

    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.
    3.  Two-Factor Authentication : Select ad/ldap user store type

  • 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.
  •  MFA/2FA: Configure LDAP server URL Connection

  • In Active Directory, go to the properties of user containers/OU's and search for Distinguished Name attribute.
  •  MFA: Configure user bind account domain name

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

  • 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.
  •  2FA : Configure user search base

  • 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.
  •  MFA/2FA : Select user search filter

  • 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.
  •  MFA : Activate LDAP options

    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.
  •  2FA: Test AD/Ldap connection

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

  • Enter a valid Username. Then, click on Test. Mapped Attributes corresponding to the user are fetched.
  •  MFA: Fetch mapped attributes for user

  • 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  miniOrange dashboard

  • Enable the "Enable User Auto Registration" option and click Save.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  Enable User Auto Registration

  • (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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  Enable sending Welcome Emails after user registration

  • From the Left-Side menu of the dashboard select Provisioning.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  User Sync/Provisioning

  • In Setup Provisioning tab select Active Directory in the Select Application drop-down.
  • Toggle the Import Users tab, click on Save button.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  User Sync Active Directory Configuration

  • 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  User Sync Import Operation

  • You can view all the Users you have imports by selecting Users >> User List from Left Panel.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  User List

  • 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

    • Click on Users >> User List >> Add User.
    •  VPN 2FA : Add user in miniOrange

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

    • After successful user creation a notification message "An end user is added successfully" will be displayed at the top of the dashboard.
    •  Two-Factor Authentication: Add user details

    • 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.
    •  2FA: Select email action

    • 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.
    •  Multi-Factor Authentication: Reset user password
    • 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.
    •  2FA: Add users via bulk upload

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

    • To bulk upload users, choose the file make sure it is in comma separated .csv file format then click on Upload.
    •  2FA : Bulk upload user

    • 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)


  • 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Select Active Directory (AD)

  • Select Group Provisioning/Deprovisioning tab, and toggle on Import Group option.
  • Enter the Base DN for group sync and click Save.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Enter BaseDN

  • If you want to dynamically allocate users to the groups present in the miniOrange, then enable "Assign Users to groups"
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : Switch on import Group

  • 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN : User group imported successfully

    (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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  Manage Groups

  • Enter an appropriate Group Name and click on Create Group.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  Create Groups

  • 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  User Assign

  • 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  Assignment to Group

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


4. Setup MFA for Netgate pfsense VPN

Note: You can follow this guide, if you want to customize and enroll MFA for end users.


  • Here, we will configure a policy for the User Group that we created in this step and associate it with the Netgate pfsense VPN VPN Application.
  • Click on Policies tab >> App Login Policy.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  App Authentication Policy

  • Click on Add Policy tab.
  • In Application section, select the RADIUS 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.
  • MFA/Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Netgate pfsense VPN  App Add Policy


5. Test Netgate pfsense VPN MFA

  • Connect to Netgate pfsense.
  • 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 pfsense.

Troubleshooting

How can I check RADIUS User audit logs in miniOrange admin dashboard?

  • Login to miniOrange Admin Dashboard.
  • Click on Reports >> Radius User Authentication Report.
  • MFA 2FA two-factor authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN : Authentication Reports

  • Enter Enduser Identifier and Date range.
  • Click on Search.
  • MFA 2FA two-factor authentication for Netgate pfsense VPN : Enduser Authentication Logs


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)?

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an authentication method that requires the user to authenticate themselves for two or more factors, in order to gain access to company resources, applications, or a VPN (Netgate pfsense VPN in this case). Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) means that users need to provide additional verification factors apart from their username and passwords thus increasing the security of the organization's resources. Checkout more about Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) here.

Three common authentication methods for MFA security are:

  • Knowledge: Something that the user knows.
  • Possession: Something that the user possesses or has.
  • Inherence: Usually referred to a biometric factor.

Types of 2FA Authentication with RADIUS:

Depending on the VPN client, 2-factor authentication can take two forms..

  • VPN Clients that support RADIUS Challenge.
  • VPN Clients that do not support RADIUS Challenge.

What are different 2FA/MFA methods for Netgate pfsense VPN supported by miniOrange?

miniOrange supports multiple 2FA/MFA authentication methods for Netgate pfsense VPN secure access such as, Push Notification, Soft Token, Microsoft / Google Authenticator etc.

Authentication TypeMethodSupported
miniOrange Authenticator Soft Token
miniOrange Push Notification
Mobile Token Google Authenticator
Microsoft Authenticator
Authy Authenticator
SMSOTP Over SMS
SMS with Link
EmailOTP Over Email
Email with Link
Call VerificationOTP Over Call
Hardware Token YubiKey Hardware Token
Display Hardware Token


Further References

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