Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA) for Cisco ISE
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is a next generation identity and access control poicy platform that helps businesses enforce compliance, improve infrastructure security, and streamline operations.
Types of 2FA Authentication with RADIUS
The 2-factor authentication can be of two types depending on the VPN clients.
- VPN Clients that support RADIUS Challenge.
- VPN Clients that do not support RADIUS Challenge.
miniOrange 2FA authentication for Cisco ISE Login
miniOrange accomplishes this by acting as a RADIUS server that accepts the username/password of the user entered as a RADIUS request and validates the user against the user store as Active Directory (AD). After the first level of authentication, miniOrange prompts the user with 2-factor authentication and either grants/revokes access based on the input by the user.
- Primary authentication initiates with the user submitting his Username and Password for Cisco ISE.
- User request acts as an authentication request to RADIUS Server(miniOrange).
- miniOrange RADIUS server passes user credentials to validate against the credentials stored in AD (Active Directory) / Database.
- Once the user's first level of authentication gets validated AD sends the confirmation to RADIUS Server.
- Now miniOrange RADIUS Server asks for a 2-factor authentication challenge to the user.
- Here user submits the response/code which he receives on his hardware/phone.
- User response is checked at miniOrange’s RADIUS Server side.
- On successful 2nd factor authentication the user is granted access to login.
What are different 2FA/MFA methods for Cisco ISE supported by miniOrange?
miniOrange supports multiple 2FA/MFA authentication methods for Cisco ISE secure access such as, Push Notification, Soft Token, Microssoft / Google Authenticator etc.
Authentication Type | Method | Supported |
miniOrange Authenticator | Soft Token | |
miniOrange Push Notification | |
Mobile Token | Google Authenticator | |
Microsoft Authenticator | |
Authy Authenticator | |
SMS | OTP Over SMS | |
SMS with Link | |
Email | OTP Over Email | |
Email with Link | |
Call Verification | OTP Over Call | |
Hardware Token | Yubikey Hardware Token | |
Display Hardware Token | |
You can opt for any of the 2FA methods to secure your Cisco ISE. To integrate 2FA, you can enable RADIUS authentication in Cisco ISE and configure policies in miniOrange to enable or disable 2FA for users.
Connect with any External Directories
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external directories such as miniOrange Directory, Microsoft AD, Azure Active Directory/LDAP, AWS Cognito and many more.
Can't find your Directory? Contact us on idpsupport@xecurify.com
Get Free Installation Help - Book a Slot
miniOrange offers free help through a consultation call with our System Engineers to Install or Setup Two-Factor Authentication for Cisco ISE solution in your environment with 30-day trial.
For this, you need to just send us an email at idpsupport@xecurify.com to book a slot and we'll help you setting it up in no time.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)/MFA for Cisco ISE Client to extend security level.
1. Add the Radius Client in miniOrange
2. Configure Cisco ISE
- Navigate to Administration → Network Resources → External RADIUS Servers and click Add.
Setting |
Value |
Name |
Give any name for Radius Server. |
Host IP |
Enter the hostname or IP address of Radius server of miniOrange that you got from Step 1. |
Shared Secret |
Shared Secret used while app creation in miniOrange. |
Authentication Port |
1812 |
Server Timeout |
60 seconds to allow sufficient time to complete miniOrange authentication. |

- Click Save to add the new server.
- Now navigate to Administration → Network Resources → RADIUS Server Sequence and click Add.
- Enter any sequence name you want to add and select the newly added server that you have entered above within the Available selection, and click the arrow to add your chosen server to the Selected section. Also check the Local accounting option.

- If you wish to configure authorization settings or other device posturing settings with ISE policies then also check the On AccessAccept, continue to Authorization Policy option on the "Advanced Attribute Setting" tab. If not, leave that option unchecked.
- Click Save to apply the change
- Now navigate to Policy → Policy Sets.
- Click the drop down of the policy set you wish to change and select your added sequence name.

- Click Save to apply the change.
3. Configure Your User Directory (Optional)
miniOrange provides user authentication from various external sources, which can be Directories (like ADFS, Microsoft Active Directory, Azure AD, OpenLDAP, Google, AWS Cognito etc), Identity Providers (like Okta, Shibboleth, Ping, OneLogin, KeyCloak), Databases (like MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL) and many more. You can configure your existing directory/user store or add users in miniOrange.
Configure your existing directories such as Microsoft Active Directory, Azure, OpenLDAP, etc.
- Click on User Stores >> Add User Store in the left menu of the dashboard.

- Select User Store type as AD/LDAP.

- STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION IN MINIORANGE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in miniOrange. If active directory is behind a firewall, you will need to open the firewall to allow incoming requests to your AD.
- STORE LDAP CONFIGURATION ON PREMISE: Choose this option if you want to keep your configuration in your premise and only allow access to AD inside premises. You will have to download and install miniOrange gateway in your premise.

- Enter LDAP Display Name and LDAP Identifier name.
- Select Directory Type as Active Directory.
- Enter the LDAP Server URL or IP Address against LDAP Server URL field.
- Click on Test Connection button to verify if you have made a successful connection with your LDAP server.

- In Active Directory, go to the properties of user containers/OU's and search for Distinguished Name attribute.

- Enter the valid Bind account Password.
- Click on Test Bind Account Credentials button to verify your LDAP Bind credentials for LDAP connection.

- Search Base is the location in the directory where the search for a user begins. You will get this from the same place you got your Distinguished name.

- Select a suitable Search filter from the drop down menu. To use custom Search Filter select "Custom Search Filter" option and customize it accordingly.

- You can also configure following options while setting up AD. Enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP. Click on the Save button to add user store.

Here's the list of the attributes and what it does when we enable it. You can enable/disable accordingly.
Attribute |
Description |
Activate LDAP |
All user authentications will be done with LDAP credentials if you Activate it |
Sync users in miniOrange |
Users will be created in miniOrange after authentication with LDAP |
Backup Authentication |
If LDAP credentials fail then user will be authenticated through miniOrange |
Allow users to change password |
This allows your users to change their password. It updates the new credentials in your LDAP server |
Enable administrator login |
On enabling this, your miniOrange Administrator login authenticates using your LDAP server |
Show IdP to users |
If you enable this option, this IdP will be visible to users |
Send Configured Attributes |
If you enable this option, then only the attributes configured below will be sent in attributes at the time of login |
- Click on Save. After this, it will show you the list of User stores. Click on Test Configuration to check whether you have enter valid details. For that, it will ask for username and password.

- On Successful connection with LDAP Server, a success message is shown.
- Click on Test Attribute Mapping.

- Enter a valid Username. Then, click on Test. Mapped Attributes corresponding to the user are fetched.

- After successful Attribute Mapping Configuration, go back to the ldap configuration and enable Activate LDAP in order to authenticate users from AD/LDAP.
Refer our guide to setup LDAPS on windows server.
User Import and Provisioning from AD
Note: Below steps are used to enable one time or manual sync. To enable sync on scheduled basis, you should use LDAP gateway module. Read more and download the LDAP gateway module.
- Go to Settings in the Customer Admin Account.

- Enable the "Enable User Auto Registration" option and click Save.

- (Optional) To send a welcome email to all the end users that will be imported, enable the "Enable sending Welcome Emails after user registration" option and click Save.

- From the Left-Side menu of the dashboard select Provisioning.

- In Setup Provisioning tab select Active Directory in the Select Application Drop Down.
- Toggle the Import Users tab, click on Save button.

- On the same section, switch to Import Users section.
- Select Active Directory from the dropdown and click on the Import Users tab, to import all the users from Active Directory to miniOrange.

- You can view all the Users you have imports by selecting Users >> User List from Left Panel.

- All the imported users will be auto registered.
- These groups will be helpful in adding multiple 2FA policies on the applications.
4. Creating User Groups (Recommended)
- 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.
5. Configure 2FA/MFA for End-Users
- To enable 2FA/MFA for Cisco ISE endusers, go to 2-Factor Authentication >> 2FA Options For EndUsers.
- Select default Two-Factor authentication method for end users. Also, you can select particular 2FA methods, which you want to show on the end users dashboard.
- Once Done with the settings, click on Save to configure your 2FA settings.

- Login into your End-User Dashboard using end user login URL.
- For Cloud Version: The login URL (branding url) which you have set in Step 1
- For On-Premise version: The login URL will be the same as of Admin Login URL.
- Select Setup 2FA from left panel. (Browse through the Second factor options and choose an appropriate method to be used by the particular End-User during login.)
- For now, we have selected the SMS >> OTP OVER SMS as our 2FA method. You can explore the guide to setup other 2FA methods here.
- Enable the OTP over SMS if you have your phone number added under your profile section else click on Edit button.

- Enter you Phone Number along with the necessary country code and click on the SAVE button.

- Admin can change the second factor of the End user from the User List.

- Under Action Click on Select and then select Reset Second Factor.
6. Add Another Policy (Optional)
- Here, we will configure a policy for the User Group that we created in the Step 4 and associate it with the Cisco ISE VPN Application.
- Click on Policies tab >> App Login Policy.

- Click on Add Policy tab.
- In Application section, select the RADIUS 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.

7. Test 2FA for Cisco ISE Login
- Connect to Cisco ISE.
- Enter Username, Password and 2FA code.
With the help of this guide you will be able to configure Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) for Cisco ISE VPN Client Login.
8. Troubleshooting
- Login to miniOrange Admin Dashboard.
- Click on Reports >> Radius User Authentication Report.

- Enter Enduser Identifier and Date range.
- Click on Search.

Further References