Cisco ASA: LDAP Administrative Authentication (AAA)

(Originally posted 2012-06-16)

Based on ASDM 6.4(7), and ASA OS 8.2(5).

If you want to use your AD accounts for Administrative logins to the ASA, as well as Execute access, this will help you configure it. You’ll need to configure a group in AD and add the relevant accounts that you wish to grant access to beforehand.

ASA AAA for Administration

Expand: ASDM > Configuration > Device Management > Users/AAA

Select AAA Server Groups
Select ADD under ‘AAA Server Groups‘ pane
AAA Server Group: LDAP_DOMAIN
Protocol: LDAP
Reactivation: Depletion
Dead Time: 10 minutes
Max Failed Attempts: 3
Ok

Highlight ‘LDAP_DOMAIN‘ in the list

Select ADD under ‘Servers in the Selected Group‘ pane
Interface Name: Select Interface which the LDAP server is accessible on
Server Name or IP Address: IP of LDAP server
Timeout: 10 seconds
Enable LDAP over SSL: uncheck  (if you have a proper PKI certificate configured, you can enable this)
Server Port: 389   (port 636 by default for SSL, if you have enabled it)
Server Type: Microsoft
Base DN: Base bind point of the directory search in CN=XXX,OU=XXX,DC=XXX,DC=XXX format
Scope: Sub
Naming Attributes: sAMAccountName
Login DN: CN=LDAP Reader,OU=XXXX,DC=XXXX,DC=XXXX  (just a domain user, not a domain admin)
Login Password: password of LDAP Reader account
LDAP Attribute Map: –None–  (note, we’ll come back to this setting)
SASL MD5 Authentication: uncheck
SASL Kerberos Authentication: uncheck
Group Base DN: leave blank
Group Search Timeout: 10
OK

Expand ‘LDAP Attribute Map‘ at the bottom

Select ADD
Name: LDAP_MemberOf_ServiceType
Under Mapping of Attribute Name tab:
LDAP Attribute Name: memberOf
Cisco Attribute Name: IETF-Radius-Service-Type
Select ‘Add >>
Select ‘Mapping of Attribute Value’ tab
LDAP Attribute Value: group name in CN format to valid users
Cisco Attribute Value: 6
Select ‘Add >>
OK

Select Server added under ‘Servers in the Selected Group

Select Edit
Change LDAP Attribute Map to ‘LDAP_MemberOf_ServiceType
OK

Highlight the Server that was just added in the list

Select Test
Select Authorization
Enter user that should be authorized successfully
Ok
Select Test
Select Authorization
Enter user that should NOT be authorized successfully
Ok

You can repeat the above steps, except for the LDAP Attribute Map, which can be reused, for multiple servers for redundancy. I highly recommend this.

Select ‘User Accounts‘ in navigation pane

Select ‘Add
Username: some_admin_user
Password: some_admin_password
Confirm Password: some_admin_password
Select ‘Full Access
Change Privilege Level to ‘15
OK

**This is a LOCAL database user that will be used for emergency access to the ASA if the LDAP servers are unavailable. This account cannot log in if the LDAP servers are available.**

Select AAA Access in navigation pane

Select ‘Authentication‘ tab
Under ‘Require authentication to allow use of privileged mode commands
Check ‘Enable‘, Server Group: LDAP_DOMAIN, check ‘Use LOCAL when server group fails
Under ‘Require authentication for the following types of connections
Check ‘SSH‘, Server Group: LDAP_DOMAIN, check ‘Use LOCAL when server group fails
Leave HTTP/ASDM, Serial and Telnet unchecked, this way if you’ve screwed up somewhere, you haven’t locked yourself out of the ASA.
Select ‘Authorization‘ tab
Under ‘Enable authorization for ASA command access
Uncheck ‘Enable
Under ‘Perform authorization for exec shell access
Check ‘Enable‘, ‘Remote server
OK

Apply configuration

Test connecting to the ASA via SSH via domain credentials; no need to specify domain name with the username. Verify that executing ‘enable’ and specifying your AD password works.

If successful, save configuration to flash. Otherwise, review configuration via ASDM and change/test until it does.

Once satisfied that access is correctly being handled via SSH, enable LDAP AAA for HTTP/ASDM as well.

Select AAA Access in navigation pane
Select ‘Authentication‘ tab
Under ‘Require authentication for the following types of connections
Check ‘HTTP/ASDM‘, Server Group: LDAP_DOMAIN, check ‘Use LOCAL when server group fails
OK

Save configuration to flash/startup-configuration.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *