RADIUS

RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) is the authentication protocol used by VPNs, corporate wifi, firewalls and network equipment. Ironchip answers the RADIUS requests from the equipment and asks the user for approval on their device.

Requirements

• An administrator account in the Ironchip admin console.
• A device that supports RADIUS and access to its authentication server settings.
• The users enrolled in Ironchip, or identity synchronization configured.

Create the application in Ironchip

The first step is to create a Passwordless RADIUS application in the Ironchip admin console, which gives you an API key.

1. Go to Applications and click New application.
2. In the Standard authentication protocols section, choose Passwordless RADIUS.
3. Give it an identifying name (at least 3 characters) and click Add.
4. Copy the API key or click Download credentials to download it in the credentials.json file. The console does not show it again.

Install the RADIUS server

Ironchip answers RADIUS requests with the Ironchip RADIUS server, a service for Windows and Linux that listens on UDP port 1812 by default. Its guide explains how to:

• download the executable from the latest release;
• create the ironchip_lbauth_radius_server.json configuration file with the API key (ironchip_api_secret) and the shared secret (radius_key);
• install and start it as a service with service install and service start;
• add attributes to the RADIUS response, for example the user’s groups.

Then configure the device you want to protect (VPN, wifi, firewall) to use that server: its address, port 1812 and the same shared secret. You have examples for specific products in the integrations guides, such as WatchGuard.

Authentication example

The following video shows access to a WatchGuard VPN with the Ironchip RADIUS server running.

In the video a password is typed because WatchGuard does not allow the field to be left empty. The text in that field can be random, as in the two examples in the video.

Access to a WatchGuard VPN with the Ironchip RADIUS serverPlay video