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Showing posts from September, 2024

Stop Using PEAP/MS-CHAPv2

I see a lot of customers continue to use PEAP/MS-CHAPv2 for 802.1X network authentication to Cisco ISE and other network access control platforms and RADIUS servers.  STOP!   MS-CHAPv2 uses broken MD5 encryption and should no longer be used to pass sensitive credentials over any network.  Microsoft has taken steps to disable PEAP/MS-CHAPv2 for Active Directory credentials in updated versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11.  You can get around this with a registry hack but it's still a BAD idea.  If you are still using MS-CHAPv2 for 802.1X authentication, it's time to migrate to certificate based authentication methods instead such as EAP-TLS.  Even better, use TEAP with user and machine authentication using certificates.   Some use-cases (like BYOD or guest access) could also transition to SAML-based authentication to your IDP of choice.  SAML Assertion sometimes can remove the need for a RADIUS server all together.  Having a secure, robust PKI is essential for certificate based
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Fix Cisco ISE Messaging Service

Cisco Identity Services Engine 2.6 introduced the concept of the ISE Messaging Service as an encrypted, lightweight protocol to replace syslog communication between the ISE nodes for logging purposes.  The ISE Messaging Services runs over TCP/8671.  In 2.6 Patch 2 and later, the Cisco ISE Messaging Service is enabled by default.   The overall implementation of the ISE Messaging Service has been buggy (but has gotten much better in recent versions) in both new ISE builds and upgrades.  One solution is simply to disable the ISE Messaging Service within Administration > System > Logging.  But then the ISE logging traffic isn't encrypted and the legacy syslog delivery method is not as efficient as the ISE Messaging Service so we will focus the rest of this article on how to identity and fix the ISE Messaging Service. Problem Identification Usually problems with the ISE Messaging Service involve a blank Live Logs page.  You know authentication is working as you have devices/users
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ClearPass MPSK per Device Type with Profiling

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Multiple Pre-Shared Key or MPSK helps solve for IOT or other endpoint device types that are not 802.1X capable.  The Aruba ClearPass default implementation of MPSK (the configuration created by the wizard) requires manually registering, enrolling, and managing individual PSK keys per endpoint using the ClearPass Guest dashboard.  While the most secure approach, excluding any sort of API based automation, this can obviously be a nightmare to manage and support due to the sheer number of PSKs.  This approach instead delivers a unique PSK per device type (printer, thermostat, etc.) so that each flavor of endpoint would have its own PSK.  If one PSK was compromised, then only those endpoints would need to be manually re-configured.  PSK rotation would also be limited to only those specific device types allowing rotation to take place slowly over several weeks rather than all devices at the same time on the SSID with a traditional single PSK; lessoning the burden on IT staff and minimizing
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Cisco Designated VIP 2023

I'm happy to announce that I have been recognized as a Cisco Community Designated VIP for 2023 for my assistance in the Cisco Secure Network Access Control community focusing on Identity Services Engine.  Be sure to check out all of the Cisco Community Designated VIPs .
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