Add an LDAP external authentication object for the Security Cloud Control

Add an LDAP server to support external users for device management.

Before you begin

You must specify DNS server(s) for domain name lookup on your device. Even if you specify an IP address for the LDAP server during this procedure, the server may return a URI for authentication that includes a hostname. A DNS lookup is required to resolve the hostname.
If you are configuring an LDAP authentication object for use with CAC authentication, do not remove the CAC from your computer. You must have a CAC inserted at all times after enabling user certificates.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose a Server Type from the drop-down list.

Tip	If you click Set Defaults , the device populates the User Name Template , UI Access Attribute , CLI Access Attribute , Group Member Attribute , and Group Member URL Attribute fields with default values for the server type.

Step 2

For the Primary Server, enter a Host Name/IP Address. If you are using a certificate to connect via TLS or SSL, the host name in the certificate must match the host name used in this field. In addition, IPv6 addresses are not supported for encrypted connections. Now, change the Port from the default and enter the Backup Server parameters and LDAP-Specific Parameters.

Enter the Base DN for the LDAP directory you want to access. For example, to authenticate names in the Security organization at the Example company, enter ou=security,dc=example,dc=com . Alternatively click Fetch DNs , and choose the appropriate base distinguished name from the drop-down list.
(Optional) Enter the Base Filter . For example, if the user objects in a directory tree have a physicalDeliveryOfficeName attribute and users in the New York office have an attribute value of NewYork for that attribute, to retrieve only users in the New York office, enter (physicalDeliveryOfficeName=NewYork) .

If you are using CAC authentication, to filter only active user accounts (excluding the disabled user accounts), enter (!(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)) . This criteria retrieves user accounts within AD belonging to ldpgrp group and with userAccountControl attribute value that is not 2 (disabled).
Enter a User Name for a user who has sufficient credentials to browse the LDAP server. For example, if you are connecting to an OpenLDAP server where user objects have a uid attribute, and the object for the administrator in the Security division at your example company has a uid value of NetworkAdmin , you might enter uid=NetworkAdmin,ou=security,dc=example,dc=com.
Enter the user password in the Password and the Confirm Password fields.

(Optional) Click Show Advanced Options to configure these advanced options.

Encryption —Click None , TLS , or SSL .

If you change the encryption method after specifying a port, you reset the port to the default value for that method. For None or TLS , the port resets to the default value of 389
- None — LDAP communication is unencrypted.
- TLS — LDAP communication is upgraded to TLS using the STARTTLS operation on default port 389
- SSL — LDAP communication is encrypted using TLS immediately upon connection (LDAPS) on default port 636.

SSL Certificate Upload Path —For SSL or TLS encryption, click Choose File and choose the complete CA chain certificate.

Note	Do not choose a binary certificate (PKCS12, DER, and alike) file because Firewall Threat Defense does not support them.

To remove the uploaded certificate, check the Clear loaded certificate check box. This option only appears when you have uploaded a certificate, and when you are in the Edit mode of the external authentication object.

If you had previously uploaded a certificate and want to replace it, reupload the new certificate (complete CA chain), and redeploy the configuration to your devices to copy over the new certificate.

Note	TLS encryption requires a certificate on all platforms. We recommend that you always upload a certificate for SSL to prevent adversary-in-the-middle attacks.

User Name Template —Provide a template that corresponds with your UI Access Attribute . For example, to authenticate all users who work in the Security organization of the Example company by connecting to an OpenLDAP server where the UI access attribute is uid , you might enter uid=%s,ou=security,dc=example,dc=com in the User Name Template field. For a Microsoft Active Directory server, you could enter %s@security.example.com .

This field is required for CAC authentication.
Shell User Name Template —Provide a template that corresponds with your CLI Access Attribute to authenticate CLI users. For example, to authenticate all users who work in the Security organization by connecting to an OpenLDAP server where the CLI access attribute is sAMAccountName , you might enter %s in the Shell User Name Template field.

Timeout (Seconds) —Enter the number of seconds before rolling over to the backup connection, between 1 and 1024. The default is 30.

Note

The timeout range is different for Firewall Threat Defense and the Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center , so if you share an object, be sure not to exceed the Firewall Threat Defense 's smaller timeout range (1-30 seconds). If you set the timeout to a higher value, the Firewall Threat Defense LDAP configuration will not work.

Step 3

Configure Attribute Mapping to retrieve users based on an attribute.

Enter a UI Access Attribute , or click Fetch Attrs to retrieve a list of available attributes. For example, on a Microsoft Active Directory Server, you may want to use the UI access attribute to retrieve users, because there may not be a uid attribute on Active Directory Server user objects. Instead, you can search the userPrincipalName attribute by typing userPrincipalName in the UI Access Attribute field.
Set the CLI Access Attribute if you want to use a shell access attribute other than the user distinguished type. For example, on a Microsoft Active Directory Server, use the sAMAccountName CLI access attribute to retrieve CLI access users by typing sAMAccountName .

Step 4

(Optional) Configure Group Controlled Access Roles.

If you do not configure a user’s privileges using group-controlled access roles, a user has only the privileges granted by default in the external authentication policy.

(Optional) In the fields that correspond to user roles, enter the distinguished name for the LDAP groups that contain users who should be assigned to those roles.

Any group you reference must exist on the LDAP server. You can reference static LDAP groups or dynamic LDAP groups. Static LDAP groups are groups where membership is determined by group object attributes that point to specific users, and dynamic LDAP groups are groups where membership is determined by creating an LDAP search that retrieves group users based on user object attributes. Group access rights for a role only affect users who are members of the group.

If you use a dynamic group, the LDAP query runs exactly as it is configured on the LDAP server. To prevent infinite loops caused by search syntax errors, the device limits recursions of a search to four.
Example:

Enter this in the Administrator field to authenticate names in the information technology organization at the Example company:
```
cn=itgroup,ou=groups, dc=example,dc=com
```
Choose a Default User Role for users that do not belong to any of the specified groups.
If you use static groups, enter a Group Member Attribute .

Example:

If the member attribute is used to indicate membership in the static group for default Security Analyst access, enter member .
If you use dynamic groups, enter a Group Member URL Attribute .

Example:

If the memberURL attribute contains the LDAP search that retrieves members for the dynamic group you specified for default Admin access, enter memberURL .

Step 5

(Optional) Set the CLI Access Filter to allow CLI users.

To prevent LDAP authentication of CLI access, leave this field blank. To specify CLI users, choose one of these methods:

To use the same filter you specified when configuring authentication settings, check the check box of Same as Base Filter .
To retrieve administrative user entries based on attribute value, enter the attribute name, a comparison operator, and the attribute value you want to use as a filter, enclosed in parentheses. For example, if all network administrators have a manager attribute which has an attribute value of shell , you can set a base filter of (manager=shell) .

The usernames must be Linux-valid:

Maximum 32 alphanumeric characters, plus period (.), hyphen (-), and underscore (_)
All lowercase
Cannot start with hyphen (-); cannot be all numbers; cannot include at sign (@) or slash (/)

Note	Users with CLI access can gain Linux shell access with the expert command. "Linux shell users can obtain root privileges, which presents a security risk. Make sure that you restrict the list of users with CLI or Linux shell access.

Note	Do not create any internal users that have the same user name as users included in the CLI Access Filter. The only internal Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center user should be admin ; do not include an admin user in the CLI Access Filter.

Step 6

(Optional) Click Test to test connectivity to the LDAP server.

The test output lists valid and invalid user names. Valid user names are unique, and can include underscores ( _ ), periods ( . ), hyphens ( - ), and alphanumeric characters. Note that testing the connection to servers with more than 1000 users only returns 1000 users because of UI page size limitations. If the test fails, refer to Troubleshoot LDAP authentication connections .

Step 7

(Optional) You can also enter Additional Test Parameters to test user credentials for a user who should be able to authenticate: enter a User Name uid and Password , and then click Test. Click Save. Enable use of this server. Refer to Enable external authentication for users on the CDO.

If you are connecting to a Microsoft Active Directory Server and supplied a UI access attribute in place of uid , use the value for that attribute as the user name. You can also specify a fully qualified distinguished name for the user.

Tip

If you mistype the name or password of the test user, the test fails even if the server configuration is correct. To verify that the server configuration is correct, click Test without entering user information in the Additional Test Parameters field first. If that succeeds, supply a user name and password to test with the specific user.

Example:

To test if you can retrieve the JSmith user credentials at the Example company, enter JSmith and the correct password.

Examples

Basic Example

This figures illustrate a basic configuration of an LDAP login authentication object for a Microsoft Active Directory Server. The LDAP server in this example has an IP address of 10.11.3.4. The connection uses port 389 for access.

The diagram illustrates the process of adding an LDAP external authentication object, highlighting the key steps and components involved in the configuration.

This example shows a connection using a base distinguished name of OU=security,DC=it,DC=example,DC=com for the security organization in the information technology domain of the Example company.

The diagram illustrates the process of adding an LDAP external authentication object, highlighting the necessary configuration steps and components involved in the setup.

However, because this server is a Microsoft Active Directory server, it uses the sAMAccountName attribute to store user names rather than the uid attribute. Choosing the MS Active Directory server type and clicking Set Defaults sets the UI Access Attribute to sAMAccountName . As a result, the system checks the sAMAccountName attribute for each object for matching user names when a user attempts to log into the system.

In addition, a CLI Access Attribute of sAMAccountName causes each sAMAccountName attribute to be checked for all objects in the directory for matches when a user logs into a CLI account on the appliance.

Note that because no base filter is applied to this server, the system checks attributes for all objects in the directory indicated by the base distinguished name. Connections to the server time out after the default time period (or the timeout period set on the LDAP server).

Advanced Example

This example illustrates an advanced configuration of an LDAP login authentication object for a Microsoft Active Directory Server. The LDAP server in this example has an IP address of 10.11.3.4. The connection uses port 636 for access.

The diagram illustrates the process of adding an LDAP external authentication object, highlighting the necessary steps and components involved in the configuration.

This example shows a connection using a base distinguished name of OU=security,DC=it,DC=example,DC=com for the security organization in the information technology domain of the Example company. However, note that this server has a base filter of (cn=*smith) . The filter restricts the users retrieved from the server to those with a common name ending in smith .

The diagram illustrates the steps to add an LDAP external authentication object, highlighting the necessary configuration fields and their relationships within the system.

The connection to the server is encrypted using SSL and a certificate named certificate.pem is used for the connection. In addition, connections to the server time out after 60 seconds because of the Timeout (Seconds) setting.

Because this server is a Microsoft Active Directory server, it uses the sAMAccountName attribute to store user names rather than the uid attribute. Note that the configuration includes a UI Access Attribute of sAMAccountName . As a result, the system checks the sAMAccountName attribute for each object for matching user names when a user attempts to log into the system.

This example also has group settings in place. The Maintenance User role is automatically assigned to all members of the group with a member group attribute and the base domain name of CN=SFmaintenance,DC=it,DC=example,DC=com .

The CLI Access Filter is set to be the same as the base filter, so the same users can access the appliance through the CLI as through the web interface.

The diagram illustrates the process of adding an LDAP external authentication object to enable external user support for device management. It highlights the key components and connections involved in the configuration.