Protecting A Network With Sophos NAC Advanced and Allied Telesis Switches
Protecting A Network With Sophos NAC Advanced and Allied Telesis Switches
Protecting A Network With Sophos NAC Advanced and Allied Telesis Switches
The description begins with a summary of the supporting applications that must be installed on the server. Then it moves on to the installation of the
Sophos NAC server. The configuration of the NAC server to provide effective network protection is considered in some detail. Finally, the Allied Telesis
switch configuration is provided, and the significant points in the configuration are discussed.
■■ Create remote access policies for the IAS server, see page 13
■■ Configure LAN switches as RADIUS client to the IAS server, see page 17
For further information about NAC technology, and the NAC features available on Allied Telesis switches, see:
“Advanced edge security with NAC”
available from http://www.alliedtelesis.com/resources/literature/literature.aspx?id=5
For completeness, this solution description will assume that the server begins with a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 2003, and will discuss all
the steps required to go from that fresh installation to a state that is ready for Sophos Advanced NAC.
Many readers will skip some of these steps, as they will be starting with a server that has a number of these features already enabled. However,
different servers will begin from different starting states, so to cover all cases; this document will describe all the required steps.
Setting up the server as a Domain Controller
In this section, we will set up the server as a Domain Controller, and create a user account with the Active Directory user database. This will be called
the NAC service account.
1. Run dcpromo.exe.
2. In this example, the server is the Domain Controller for a new domain.
At this point, the enabling of the Domain Controller feature is complete.The next task is to raise the functional level of the Domain Controller.
The server’s name will appear in the list of domain servers in the left-hand pane.
2. Right-click on the server’s name and select Raise Domain Functional Level.
The final task in this section is to create the NAC service user account.
2. Right-click on the Users menu item beneath the server’s name. From the resulting pop-ups, choose New >User.
3. Provide the user with a First name and Last name, as below.
This installation is very straightforward, simply run the installer, and you are guided through the installation, with no significant choices having to be made.
1. Run the installer, and you will be presented with the following opening dialog.
2. Click Install, and you will be offered the opportunity to decide which components to install. Leave this at the default setting.
4. Click Install on the next dialog, and the SQL server will be installed.
The installer for this is provided on the Sophos NAC Advanced distribution CD, and can also be downloaded from Microsoft.com. The installation of
this software is very straightforward. The only choice that needs to be made is on the second dialog, where you need to choose the setup type.
2. Within the IIS Manager, choose Web Services Extensions in the left-hand pane. A list of the Web Services Extensions is displayed.
2. Within the IAS manager, select Remote Access Policies within the left-hand pane.
You may wish to begin by deleting the default remote access polices that are listed in the right-hand pane.
3. Right-click on Remote Access Policies, and select New Remote Access Policy.
4. Select Set up a custom policy, and give it a name like Dot1x Users.
8. Click OK.
9. C
lick Next.
You now need to edit the profile for this access policy.
■■ In the Authentication tab, click the EAP Methods button, and add EAP method PEAP.
■■ In the main body of the Authentication tab, ensure that MS-CHAPv2 is ticked.
■■ Click OK.
The creation and configuration of the Access Policy is now complete.
1. From within the IAS manager, right-click on RADIUS Clients in the left-hand pane, and choose New RADIUS Client.
Right-click on Internet Authentication Service (Local) in the left-hand pane of the IAS manager, and choose Register Server in Active Directory.
First, a certificate must be obtained and brought into the Server’s Certificate Store.
a. R
ight-click on Console Root in the left-hand pane of the console, and choose Add/Remove Snap-in
from the resulting pop-up menu.
b. Click Add in the resulting dialog. You will then be presented with a list of available Snap-ins to add.
d. Click Add.
3. Once the Snap-in is in place, it can be used to add a certificate to the store.
b. Right-click on the Personal store in the right-hand pane and select All Tasks > Request New Certificate...
to request a certificate from a Certificate Server (if you have a Certificate Authority set up in your network) or to
import a certificate that has been supplied to you as PKCS or DER file. (The process of obtaining certificates or
certificate servers is beyond the scope of this document).
Once the certificate is in the store, the Web server needs to use this as its server certificate.
You will be presented with a list of the certificates present in your certificate store.
8. Choose the certificate you intended for use as your Web Server certificate.
It is best to set the TCP port for the secure connections at the default value of 443.
9. Click Next.
First, the Sophos NAC SQL database must be installed, and then the NAC application itself can be installed.
In this example, we installed SQL server express. This is identified to the database installer as .\SQLEXPRESS.
Recall, also, that we specified Windows Authentication when installing the SQL server. So, that authentication method needs to be chosen here in the
database installation.
The database installation also needs to know the details of the NAC Service User Account that was created in Active Directory. Enter these details in
the second dialog of database installation wizard.
The installer begins by checking for all the supporting applications and features.
The SQL server and NAC Service Account details need to be provided again.
■■ Inaddition, a Radius Shared Secret needs to be specified that is used by the Agent software within the end-point PCs when they register
themselves to the NAC server.
1. Browse to: http://<ip address server>/SophosNAC. The Web interface Logon page displays:
2. Type Admin in the Account Name field and a password of your choice in the Password field.
3. Click Login.
4. The first time you access the Web interface you are required to change the password.
There are a number of elements within the application that must now be configured in order to create a NAC solution. There is no fixed order in
which these tasks must be performed (although some, certainly, must be performed before others.) The order presented below is reasonably logical.
Whilst these Access Templates are not likely to be of much use for your NAC solution, it is worth taking a look at the structure of the templates, to
become acquainted with what elements comprise a RADIUS Enforcer Access Template.
■■ Compliance State – This indicates which sort of end-points this Access Template will be applied to. This will become clearer when the Policies
are described, below, but in summary, the NAC server determines the level of an End-Point’s compliance with the Health policy, and then decides
which Access Templates can be applied to the End-Point.
• The Compliance State can take values Compliant, Partially Compliant, and Non-Compliant. Again, the process by which the server
decides which state an End-Point is in will be discussed later on.
■■ Network Access – This indicates whether a RADIUS-Accept message or a RADIUS-Reject message will be sent to the End-Point at the end of
the RADIUS negotiation.
■■ RADIUS Client IP Addresses – This indicates which RADIUS clients (i.e. 802.1x authenticator LAN switches) this Access Template applies to. If
a RADIUS request comes from a RADIUS client that is not within the range(s) of addresses defined here, then this Access Template cannot apply
to that request.
■■ RADIUS Attributes – This is a list of attributes that will be sent to the RADIUS client if the RADIUS request is accepted. Typically, the attributes
will be used to dynamically allocate a VLAN ID.
2. Select Radius Enforcer Access Templates from the second-layer bar menu that is then created.
This will provide you with an interface within which you can define the attributes of the new template.
■■ You can decide on the Name and Description to give the template.
■■ You have a choice of which Compliance States the template will apply to – you can choose any combination of the 3 states.
■■ You can add ranges of applicable RADIUS Client IP Addresses, or leave the client address setting at its default value of ‘ANY’.
■■ The area of the template you are most likely to configure is the RADIUS Attributes. The first item that can be set in that section is the choice
as to whether or not users to whom this template is applied are to be given access to the network. Then you can define the attributes that will
be allocated to the RADIUS client if the supplicant is to be given network access.To dynamically allocate a VLAN ID to an Allied Telesis switch, you
must set the following three attributes:
• Tunnel-type is set to VLAN (value=13)
• Tunnel-Medium-Type is set to IEEE 802 Ethernet (value=6)
• Tunnel-Private-Group-ID is set to the VLAN ID that is to be allocated to the RADIUS Client
For the Template Compliance States, you will probably wish to create different templates for Compliant, Partially-Compliant and Non-Compliant
end-points. Possibly, Partially-Compliant and Non-Compliant end-points will be assigned to a remediation VLAN.
Also, for compliant end-points, you may have different access templates for different RADIUS clients – as the different clients may be in different parts
of the network, where different VLANs are in use.
Create and save whatever RADIUS Enforcer Access Templates are required for your NAC solution.
Creating/Configuring profiles
Profiles sit at the heart of defining the health policy for end-point devices.
Profiles are the individual items that are checked when the health status of a device is being assessed. They are things like: which virus scanner is
installed? How up-to-date is its virus pattern database? What operating system security patches are installed? Etc.
To access the profile editing interface, choose Manage from the menu along the top of the application interface. Then choose Profiles from the drop-
down menu.
From there, you can either choose to create a new profile, or click on an existing profile to edit it. For example, you can see below that the Profile
for the Windows Firewall under XP SP2 is being edited. The profile is effectively a series of properties to check in relation to this application – is it
installed, is it enabled? – and decisions to make based on the answers those questions. The decisions can be to declare the client device compliant or
non-compliant, whether to present the user a message in relation to this decision, and whether to take remedial action.
The default list of profiles in the application is quite extensive, and has chosen sensible default settings, so it is quite possible that you will not have to
make any changes or additions to the profiles.
Creating policies
A policy combines a set of profiles together, to create a definition of what will constitute a health-check of endpoint devices.
You can edit policies via the Manage menu. The opening screen lists all the currently existing policies. By default, no policies exist.
To create a new Policy, click on Create Policy, near the bottom of the window.
The central task in creating a Policy is that of adding the profiles that define the Health Checks that are to be performed on EndPoints.
To add Profiles, click on Add Profiles near the bottom of the window. This will provide you with an interface in which you can choose profiles from a
number of different types. Choose the type, and the profile, that you wish to add to the policy.
The illustration below shows an example of an anti-virus application profile being added.
As profiles are added, their types are added to a list at the lower left of the window, as shown below. The illustration below also shows how RADIUS
Enforcer Access Templates are added to the policy.
Access Templates are added to each of the Compliant, Partially Compliant, and Non-Compliant sections of the Access Templates list. Multiple Templates
can be added to each section, and are arranged in the order you wish a RADIUS request to be checked against them, until a template is found that
matches the properties of that RADIUS request.
First an Agent Deployment Template is created, and then the installer is created, using settings defined in the Deployment Template.
2. Select Agent Deployment, and you will be presented with the Agent Deployment Template interface.
3. Click Create Agent Deployment Template near the bottom of the window. This takes you to an interface for defining the details of the Agent
Deployment Template.
A number of quite detailed options can be configured, to control how the agent will operate, by clicking the Select button opposite Agent Settings.
Also, the Advanced Server Settings link gives you the opportunity to set some parameters on how the agent interacts with the server. In particular,
you can choose whether the communication between agent and server is performed by HTTP or HTTPS. The communication defaults to HTTPS, but if
you have any problem with HTTPS communication between the agent and the server, then choose the option of HTTP instead.
Once you have configured the desired settings on the Agent Deployment Template, you are ready to create the agent installation file.
Once a template has been created, the main Agent Deployment window will contain, near the bottom, a link labelled Configure Agent File.
This link pops up a window that enabled you to configure the agent file.
■■ Click Browse... to select and upload the initial Agent MSI file from which you want to create the new Agent file. You can obtain the default Agent
MSI file from the Sophos Network Access Control installation CD.
■■ Click OK in this window, and you will be provided with a summary of the details of the Agent msi file that’s about to be created.
■■ Click OK, and the server will compile the Agent msi file, and give you the option to save it somewhere on the server.
Sets the switch to use the configured RADIUS servers for aaa authentication dot1x default group radius
802.1X authentication
ip dhcp pool NAC-noncompliant
network 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0
Creates the DHCP pool for client PCs that the Network Policy range 192.168.2.167 192.168.2.200
Server deems noncompliant. These are allocated an IP address in dns-server 192.168.0.1
the range 192.168.2.167 – 192.168.2.200 default-router 192.168.2.3
lease 1 1 1
subnet-mask 255.255.255.0
Allows all DHCP traffic. access-list 3005 permit udp any range 67 68 any range 67 68
Sets the switch to drop all traffic that does not match the other
ACLs access-list 3006 deny ip any any
Creates the compliant and noncompliant VLANs. There are vlan database
no statically allocated ports on these VLANs. Instead the vlan 2 name noncompliant
switch dynamically allocates the ports using the 802.1X VLAN vlan 10 name compliant
assignment process.
interface port1.0.1-1.0.8
Sets ports 1.0.1-1.0.8 to be non-authenticating ports. Connect
switchport
servers and routers to these ports.
switchport mode access
interface port1.0.9-1.0.24
switchport
switchport mode access
Sets the remaining ports as authenticating ports. The ACLs that ip access-group 3001
constrain the access to the network are applied to these ports. ip access-group 3002
ip access-group 3003
802.1X is enabled on these ports and configured to accept ip access-group 3004
dynamic VLAN assignment. ip access-group 3005
ip access-group 3006
dot1x port-control auto
dot1x control-direction in
auth host-mode single-host
auth dynamic-vlan-creation
interface vlan1
ip address 192.168.0.4/24
Allocates IP addresses to all the VLANs on the switch, so that it interface vlan2
can L3 switch between these VLANs. ip address 192.168.2.3/24
interface vlan3
ip address 192.168.10.3/24
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