Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Cisco AnyConnect VPN
miniOrange integrates with Cisco Anyconnect VPN easily with a few steps to provide an additional layer of security. You can configure MFA on your Cisco Anyconnect VPN within minutes.With a hybrid working culture, you can enable a secure remote access environment with multi-factor authentication for your organization.
Cisco AnyConnect is a uniform security endpoint agent which delivers multiple security services to protect the enterprise.You can enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for your Cisco AnyConnect Managed AD directory 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), for which they can use Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, OTP over SMS/Email , Push Notification, and many more. This Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) solution adds an additional security measure to prevent unwanted users from getting access and provides secure, seamless remote access connection to Cisco AnyConnect VPN.
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miniOrange MFA/2FA authentication for Cisco AnyConnect 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.
Primary authentication initiates with the user submitting his Username and Password for Cisco AnyConnect VPN.
User request acts as an authentication request to RADIUS Server(miniOrange).
miniOrange RADIUS server passes user credentials to validate against the credentials stored in AD (Active Directory) / Database.
Once the user's first level of authentication gets validated AD sends the confirmation to RADIUS Server.
Here user submits the response/code which he receives on his hardware/phone.
User response is checked at miniOrange’s RADIUS Server side.
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.
The Add Clientless SSL VPN Connection Profile dialog box opens.
Add a relevant server name and choose Authentication method to be "AAA".
For the AAA Server Group select group made in the earlier steps.
Click on Ok .
Configure VPN Network Client Profile
Navigate to Configuration >>> Remote Access VPN
In the Remote Access VPN navigation tree, under Network (Client) Access click on AnyConnect Client Profile.
Click to Add a new or Edit an existing Client Profile.
Configure the profile as preferred
In the sidebar, click on Preferences(Cont)/Preferences(Part 2) and scroll down then enter 60 for Authentication Timeout Values (or 10 seconds longer than the AAA RADIUS server timeout and 20 seconds longer than the LoginTC RADIUS Connector Request Timeout)
.
Click on Ok .
In the sidebar, click on Server List >> Add to add a server.
Enter the FQDN of your Cisco ASA VPN exposed end-point in the Hostname and a hostname or IP Address in the Host Address then click on ok .
Click on Apply.
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.
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.
STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If the active directory is behind a firewall, you will need to open the firewall to allow incoming requests to your AD.
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 on 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 the LDAP Server URL field.
Click on the 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 the Distinguished Name attribute. The bind account should have minimum required read privileges in Active Directory to allow directory lookups. If the use case involves provisioning (such as creating, updating, or deleting users or groups), the account must also be granted appropriate write permissions.
Enter the valid Bind account Password.
Click on the 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.
Click on the Next button, or go to the Authentication tab.
You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Next 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
Fallback Authentication
If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange
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
Sync users in miniOrange
Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP
Click on the Next button, or go to the Provisioning tab.
User Import and Provisioning from AD
If you want to set up provisioning, click here for detailed information. For now, we are skipping this step by clicking Skip on Provisioning.
Attributes Mapping from AD
By default userName, firstName, lastName, email are configured. Scroll down and click on Save Configurations. To fetch additional attributes from Active Directory, enable Send Configured Attributes. On the left side, enter the name that you wish to release to the applications. On the right side, enter the attribute name from Active Directory. E.g., if you wish to fetch company attribute from Active Directory, and send it as organization to configured applications, enter the following:
Attribute Name sent to SP = organization Attribute Name from IDP = company
Test Connections
You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Connections and click on it.
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.
Test Attribute Mapping
You will see a list of directories in External Directories. Go to the directory you have configured, click Select, then go to Test Attribute Mapping and click on it.
A pop-up will appear to add the username. After clicking Test, you will see the Test Attribute Mapping Result.
Set up AD as External Directory configuration is complete.
Note: Refer our guide to setup LDAP on windows server.
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.
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.
4. Setup MFA for Cisco AnyConnect 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 Cisco AnyConnect VPN VPN Application.
Click on Policies tab >> App Login 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.
5. Test Cisco AnyConnect VPN MFA
Connect to Cisco Cisco AnyConnect.
Enter Username, Password and 2FA code.
With the help of this guide you will be able to configure Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client Login.
Troubleshooting
How can I check RADIUS User audit logs in miniOrange admin dashboard?
Click on Reports >> Radius User Authentication Report.
Enter Enduser Identifier and Date range.
Click on Search.
What should be done when AnyConnect was not able to establish a connection to the specified secure gateway
Click on this link to get the solutions for resolving the above error message.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does Cisco AnyConnect support MFA?
Yes, Cisco AnyConnect supports MFA, and with miniOrange, you can easily integrate robust multi-factor authentication to enhance your Cisco VPN security. Experience seamless and secure access with miniOrange’s flexible VPN MFA solution.
How does Cisco AnyConnect authenticate?
Cisco AnyConnect authenticates users by leveraging client certificate authentication and validating credentials against a trusted CA certificate. You can enhance your VPN security with miniOrange’s two-factor authentication (2FA).
Cisco ASA Authentication methods 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 Cisco AnyConnect VPN supported by miniOrange?
miniOrange supports multiple 2FA/MFA authentication methods for Cisco AnyConnect VPN secure access such as, Push Notification, Soft Token, Microsoft / Google Authenticator etc.
