RADIUS applications in Okta

Okta RADIUS support can distinguish between different RADIUS-enabled apps and support them concurrently by setting up an Okta RADIUS app for each configuration. Additionally, the Okta RADIUS application supports policy creation and assignment of the application to groups.

RADIUS-enabled apps are easy to manage, as Admins can manage all of these apps and infrastructure configurations from the Okta Admin Console.

Supported factors

The following MFA factors are supported:

When integrating with Okta RADIUS, the maximum supported number of enrolled factors is dependent on the size of resulting challenge message. Okta recommends that no more than eight (8) be enrolled at one time.

MFA Factor	Password Authentication Protocol PAP	Extensible Authentication Protocol - Generic Token Card EAP-GTC	Extensible Authentication Protocol - Tunneled Transport Layer Security EAP-TTLS
Custom TOTP Authentication	Supported	Supported	Supported - as long as challenge is avoided. For example MFA only or "Password, passcode".
Duo(Push, SMS and Passcode only)	Supported	Supported	Duo passcode only.
Email	Supported	Supported	Supported when string "EMAIL" is initially sent. See associated note.
Google Authenticator	Supported	Supported	Supported - as long as challenge is avoided. For example MFA only or "Password, passcode".
Okta Verify (TOTP and PUSH)	Supported	Supported	Supported - as long as challenge is avoided. For example: MFA-only or "Password, MFA" for TOTP. Push can work with primary authentication with MFA as the push challenge is sent out-of-band.
Okta Verify (number challenge)	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported
RSA Token/ On-prem MFA	Supported	Supported	Supported - as long as challenge is avoided. For example MFA only or "Password, passcode".
Security Question	Supported (Password and MFA only)	Supported (Password + MFA only).	Not supported
SMS authentication	Supported	Supported	Supported when string "SMS" is sent. See associated note.
Symantec VIP	Supported	Supported	Supported - as long as challenge is avoided. For example MFA only or "Password, passcode".
Voice Call	Supported	Supported	Supported when string "CALL" is sent. See associated note.
YubiKey	Supported	Supported	Supported - as long as challenge is avoided. For example MFA only or "Password, passcode".

RADIUS supports three authentication methods:

Password + MFA: Primary authentication using password, then user is prompted to select factors to complete the authentication.
MFA Only: Instead of password, user enter either One Time Passcode, or one of “EMAIL”, “SMS”, “CALL”, “PUSH” (case insensitive).
Password,Passcode: Password entered immediately followed by passcode in a request.
Must be in the same request, for example: Abcd1234,879890” or “Abcd1234,SmS”.

The following authentication methods are supported by protocol:

Protocol	Supports
PAP	Password and MFA, MFA, "Password and passcode".
EAP-TTLS	MFA only, "Password and passcode".
EAP-GTC	Password and MFA, MFA only, "Password and passcode".

Must send the specified the string “EMAIL/SMS/CALL”, which will initially return a failure, but will result in the generation of an One Time Passcode(OTP) provided using the specified method. The provided OTP can then be used for authentication.

EAP-TTLS does not support enrollment

Authentication will fail unexpectedly when EAP-TTLS is enabled, either Okta Verify or Phone are specified as required enrollment policy, and the user is not enrolled in that factor.

The U2F Security and Windows Hello MFA factors are not compatible with RADIUS-enabled implementations.
For additional information about the RADIUS apps refer to Configuring RADIUS applications in Okta.

Passwordless authentication

RADIUS authentication uses passwords as the primary authentication mechanism. Traditional RADIUS authentication cannot be performed with passwordless users. RADIUS can use other factors for authentication when the application setting property Okta performs primary authentication is unchecked. See2FA Only (Passwordless Mode) in RADIUS applications in Okta for addition detail.

For more information on passwordless authentication see Set up passwordless sign-in experience.

Supported features and limitations

Features

Support for multiple RADIUS enabled apps and infrastructure

Each app and infrastructure component, such as VPNs, can be configured differently through the same Okta RADIUS Agent, because the improved RADIUS agent can listen to multiple distinct ports for separate RADIUS configurations; for example, Cisco AnyConnect uses RADIUS UDP port 1812 and another on-prem app could use RADIUS UDP port 1813.
User and group specific configurations

Because of the new app model, you can limit access to specific users and groups as needed the same way you can restrict access to any app. Admins can restrict access to RADIUS enabled apps and infrastructure to specific groups of users instead of all Okta users
Pass group ownership to RADIUS applications

Okta can now pass a list of all groups a user belongs to a RADIUS-enabled app or infrastructure. This allows admins to support fine-grained authorization with different levels of access and security based off the group membership of users.
Provide multifactor authentication and security based on IP addresses

By resolving the IP address of the client attempting to connect to a RADIUS-enabled app or infrastructure admins can adjust levels of access depending on whether a user is within a certain IP range or network zone. For more information on ranges and zones, see Network.
Centralized, Cloud-Based Configuration

Administrators can manage all of their RADIUS-enabled apps and infrastructure configurations from the Okta Admin Console, without making changes on the Okta RADIUS Agent server itself.
2FA Only (Passwordless Mode)

You can configure a RADIUS-enabled app to only use the second factor in multifactor authentication. This is also known as passwordless mode.

When configuring the app, uncheck Okta performs primary authentication. The screenshot shown below shows the default configuration, which is not 2FA only. Additionally, the UDP port must be unique. Be sure to verify the Application username format when enabling 2FA mode.

Limitations

The RADIUS port and shared secret are captured from the Okta Admin Console through any configured RADIUS applications or VPNs. Any information entered from prompts from the RADIUS agent is available if an org enables the feature after the information is entered.
WiFi infrastructure is not supported.
The RADIUS agent only supports PAP-based authentication. No other protocols are supported.

Typical workflow

Task	Description
Download the RADIUS agent	Download the Okta RADIUS Agent from the Settings > Downloads page your in Okta org. Note that there are both Windows and Linux agents
Install the Windows or Linux RADIUS agent.	Install the Okta RADIUS Agent on either Windows or Linux.
Add the RADIUS application	Add the generic RADIUS application and create and configure a group.
Configure the RADIUS customer application	Configure the customer application.
Test	Validate and test the integration.
Client IP reporting	Optionally you can configure Okta to enforce, restrict, or provide different levels of access depending on the IP address or network zone of users accessing your RADIUS-enabled system.
Okta group membership information for authorization	Optionally you can configure Okta to provide different levels of authorization and access based on the groups to which users belong for a RADIUS-enabled service. Use the following procedure for each app to configure by group membership.
RADIUS service address filtering	Optionally, for additional security, you may choose to limit access to RADIUS services by entering an IP address for a specific network adapter or by adding a list of IP addresses (such as for VPN servers). This ensures that RADIUS services are not accessed by unauthorized hosts.