• Home
• App Integrations
• MFA Integrations
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Cisco Routers and Switches

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA) for Cisco Routers and Switches

---

Two Factor Authentication (2FA) or Multifactor Authentication is the process of the authentication in which you have to provide two factors to gain the access. First Factor is the one that you know username and password and Second factor is what you might have as unique like a phone (For OTP) or Fingerprint. This additional layer prevents the unauthorized person from accessing the resources even if they know your username and password. miniOrange provides 15+ authentication methods and solutions for various use cases. TACACS+ provides better authentication, authorization and accounting, which allows for more flexible administrative control. In this guide, we will learn how to configure TACACS+ on Cisco routers and switches.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)/MFA for Cisco Routers and Switches Client to extend security level.

1. Add the TACACS Client in miniOrange

• Login into miniOrange Admin Console.
• Click on Customization in the left menu of the dashboard.
• In Basic Settings, set the Organization Name as the custom_domain name.
• Click Save. Once that is set, the branded login URL would be of the format https://<custom_domain>.xecurify.com/moas/login



• Go to Apps Click on Add Application button.



• Choose TACACS as Application type and click on Create App button.



• Click on Cisco Routers and Switches application tab. If you don't find your application click on Custom TACACS Client application tab.




Client Name:	Any name for your reference.
Client IP:	IP address of network device which will send TACACS authentication request.
Shared Secret:	Security key. For Eg. "sharedsecret" (Keep this with you, you will need to configure same on TACACS client).

• Click Next.
• If you want to authenticate your users from Identity Provider other than the default Identity Provider, navigate to Advanced Settings tab. Select your preferred Identity Provider under Primary Identity Provider section. To add your identity providers in miniOrange IDP, follow this guide.



• Click on Save button.



• Configure the following Policy details for the TACACS Client.

Group Name:	Group for which the policy will apply.
Policy Name:	Any Identifier that specifies policy name.
Login Method	Login Method for the users associated with this policy.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication	Enables Second Factor during Login for users associated with this policy.
Enable Adaptive Authentication	Enables Adaptive Authentication for Login of users associated with this policy.

• After configuring the given above details, Click on Save button.
• Copy and save the TACACS server IPs which will be required to configure your TACACS client.
NOTE: For On-Premise version follow the below steps before testing the connectivity.



Only For On-Premise Version

Open Firewall Ports.

• In order to receive the TACACS request, it is necessary to open TCP traffic on port 49 for the machine where On-Premise IdP is deployed.
• If the hosting machine is a Windows Machine then you can follow this document.
• If the hosting machine is a Linux Machine then you can follow this document.

NOTE: If your machine is hosted on AWS, then enable the ports from the AWS panel.

2. Configure Authentication for Cisco via TACACS

• Higher Versions
• 2960 series or lower versions

• First of all, we will enable AAA service on the device by running below command:
aaa new-model

• Then, we will define our tacacs server by below commands:
tacacs server miniOrange
address ipv4 tacacs-server-ip
key shared-secret
aaa group server tacacs+ miniOrange-tacacs-group
server name miniOrange
aaa authentication login AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authentication enable default group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization exec AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization commands 0 AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization commands 1 AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization commands 15 AAA group miniOrange-tacacs-group local
aaa authorization config-commands

• We are calling AAA as our main authentication server. In addition to that, if it fails, we will go back to local credentials.
• Check your number of vty lines and add the below command accordingly.
line vty 0 20
authorization commands 0 AAA
authorization commands 1 AAA
authorization commands 15 AAA
authorization exec AAA
login authentication AAA
• Test command: test aaa group tacacs+ admin Krakow123 legacy

• First of all, we will enable AAA service on the device by running below command:
tacacs-server host hostname/ip address of tacacs server
aaa new-model
aaa group server tacacs+ group-name
server ip-address
end
show running-config
copy running-config startup-config
aaa authentication enable default group tacacs+ enable
aaa authorization exec default group tacacs+ local if-authenticated
aaa authorization exec default group tacacs+ local
aaa authentication login default group tacacs+ local
• We are calling AAA as our main authentication server. In addition to that, if it fails, we will go back to local credentials.
• Check your number of vty lines and add the below command accordingly.
line vty 0 4
authorization commands 0 AAA
authorization commands 1 AAA
authorization commands 15 AAA
authorization exec AAA
login authentication AAA

3 . Configure Authorization for Cisco via TACACS

• Enable the TACACS+ Authorization.
aaa authorization exec AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization commands 0 AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization commands 1 AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization commands 15 AAA group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization config-commands

Creating User Groups (Recommended)

• AD user group
• miniOrange user group

• 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.

8. Setup MFA for

• Here, we will configure a policy for the User Group that we created in this step and associate it with the VPN Application.
• Click on Policies tab >> App Login Policy.



• Click on Add Policy tab.
• In Application section, select the TACACS 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.

9. Test miniOrange 2FA for Cisco Login

• Connect to Cisco.
• Enter Username and Password.
• It will prompt you for second factor(if enabled from miniorange admin panel), Enter your 2FA code and you should be connected to Cisco.

Further References

• Multi-Factor authentication
• Adaptive Multi-Factor authentication