Configure Cisco Firepower Management Center to interoperate with Okta via RADIUS

Okta provides the ability for organizations to manage authorization and access to on-premises applications and resources using the RADIUS protocol and the Okta RADIUS agent. With the Okta RADIUS Server Agent organizations can delegate authentication to Okta.
This page describes how to configure Cisco Firepower Management Center and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Next General Firewall to use Okta RADIUS Server Agent for MFA.

Typical architecture


Typically a client uses the Cisco anyconnect Secure Mobility client connecting to a Cisco Firepower firewall. Users are authenticated using the Okta RADIUS agent backed by Microsoft Active directory. During authentication MFA is used, often using a mobile device. See Supported factors for a complete list of supported factors.

Topics

Before you begin

Before installing the Okta RADIUS Agent ensure that you have met these minimum requirements for network connectivity:

Source Destination Port/Protocol Description
Okta RADIUS Agent Okta Identity Cloud TCP/443
HTTP		 Configuration and authentication traffic
Client Gateway Okta RADIUS Agent UDP/1812 RADIUS (Default, may be changed in RADIUS app install and configuration) RADIUS traffic between the gateway (client) and the RADIUS Agent (server)

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
Custom TOTP Authentication Supported
Duo(Push, SMS and Passcode only) Supported

Email

Supported

Google Authenticator

Supported

Okta Verify (TOTP and PUSH)

Supported

Okta Verify (number challenge)

Not supported

RSA Token/ On-prem MFA

Supported

Security Question

Supported (Password and MFA only)
SMS authentication Supported
Symantec VIP Supported

Voice Call

Supported

YubiKey

Supported

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 versions, clients and features

Versions

Software version Role
Windows Server 2016 Standard Windows domain controller
Windows Server 2016, 2019 Standard Windows application server
Cisco Firepower Thread Defense 6.4.0.9 NGFW Firewall

Cisco Firepower Virtual Management Center

 NGFW Management

The Okta RADIUS agent has been tested on the following Linux versions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.0, 8.3
  • CentOS 7.6
  • Ubuntu 18.04.4, 20.04.1 LTS

Clients

Software version Role

Windows 10

Desktop client

Cisco Anyconnect Secure Mobility Client 4.6.01103

Windows remote VPN agent

Typical workflow with Active Directory integration

Task

Description

Download and install. 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 either the Windows or Linux RADIUS agents as appropriate for your environment.

For throughput, availability and other considerations, see Okta RADIUS Server Agent Deployment Best Practices.
Optional
Download, Install, and configured the Okta AD agent		 Optional
  • Download the Okta AD Agent installer from the Settings > Downloads page your in Okta org.
  • Install and configure the Okta Active Directory agent. For a complete list of tasks see Get started with Active Directory integration.
    Note

    The active directory user needed for this process only needs domain user capabilities however it is recommended to install the agent with administrator privileges on a server which has Windows AD RSAT tools installed.

Configure RADIUS application in Okta
Configure the Cisco Firewall Management Center
Test
  • Test the newly integrated agent.