User's Guide Part 1

Table Of Contents
Chapter 3: System planning Security planning
Planning for RADIUS operation
Configure RADIUS where remote authentication is required for users of the web-based
interface. Remote authentication has the following advantages:
Control of passwords can be centralized.
Management of user accounts can be more sophisticated. For example; users can be
prompted by a network manager to change passwords at regular intervals. As another
example, passwords can be checked for inclusion of dictionary words and phrases.
Passwords can be updated without reconfiguring multiple network elements.
User accounts can be disabled without reconfiguring multiple network elements.
Remote authentication has one significant disadvantage in a wireless link product such as PTP
700. If the wireless link is down, a unit on the remote side of the broken link may be prevented
from contacting a RADIUS Server, with the result that users are unable to access the web-
based interface.
One useful strategy would be to combine RADIUS authentication for normal operation with a
single locally-authenticated user account for emergency use.
PTP 700 provides a choice of the following authentication methods:
CHAP
MS-CHAPv2
Ensure that the authentication method selected in PTP 700 is supported by the RADIUS server.
Note
RADIUS is not permitted in FIPS 140-2 applications. Ensure that the RADIUS feature is
disabled in FIPS 140-2 approved mode.
RADIUS attributes
If the standard RADIUS attribute session-timeout (Type 27) is present in a RADIUS response,
PTP 700 sets a maximum session length for the authenticated user. If the attribute is absent,
the maximum session length is infinite.
If the standard RADIUS attribute idle-timeout (Type 28) is present in a RADIUS response, PTP
700 overrides the Auto Logout Timer with this value in the authenticated session.
If the vendor-specific RADIUS attribute auth-role is present in a RADIUS response, PTP 700
selects the role for the authenticated user according to auth-role. The supported values of auth-
role are as follows:
0: Invalid role. The user is not admitted.
1: Read Only
2: System Administrator
3: Security Officer
If the vendor-specific auth-role attribute is absent, but the standard service-type (Type 6)
attribute is present, PTP 700 selects the role for the authenticated user according to service-
type. The supported values of service-type are as follows:
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