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191 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Administrator Role
Availability
Enable Read
Only
Disable
If you set this privilege to
read-only, the administrator
can view firewall licenses but
can’t refresh or activate those
licenses.
If you disable this privilege,
the administrator can’t view,
refresh, or activate firewall
licenses.
Master
Key and
Diagnostics
Specifies whether the
administrator can view and
configure a master key by
which to encrypt private keys
on Panorama.
If you set this privilege to readonly, the administrator can
view the Panorama master key
configuration but can’t change
it.
If you disable this privilege,
the administrator can’t see or
edit the Panorama master key
configuration.
Panorama: Yes
Device Group/
Template: No
Yes Yes Yes
Provide Granular Access to Operations Settings
To define which operations settings an administrator has access to, when creating or editing an
admin role profile for a firewall (Device > Admin Roles), scroll down to the Operations option on
the Web UI tab.
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
Reboot Restart the firewall. The firewall logs out
all users, reloads the PAN-OS software
and active configuration, closes and
logs existing sessions, and creates a
system log entry that shows the name
of the administrator that initiated the
reboot. This access also affects Shutdown
operations.
Yes N/A Yes
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192 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
Generate Tech
Support File
Generate a tech support system file that
the Palo Alto Networks support team can
use to troubleshoot issues that you may
be experiencing with the firewall.
Yes N/A Yes
Generate Stats
Dump File
Generate and download a set of XML
reports that summarizes network traffic
over the last seven days for the firewall.
Yes N/A Yes
Download Core
Files
If the firewall experiences a system
process failure, a core file is automatically
generated that contains details about
the process and why it failed. You can
download this core file to upload to your
Palo Alto Networks support case to obtain
further assistance in resolving the issue.
Yes N/A Yes
Download Debug
and Management
Pcap Files
If your firewall experiences a packet
capture failure, it generates a packet
capture (pcap) file that contains debug and
management details for why it failed. You
can download this pcap file to upload it
to a Palo Alto Networks support case to
obtain assistance in resolving the issue.
Yes N/A Yes
Panorama Web Interface Access Privileges
The custom Panorama administrator roles allow you to define access to the options on Panorama
and the ability to only allow access to Device Groups and Templates (Policies, Objects, Network,
Device tabs).
The administrator roles you can create are Panorama and Device Group and Template. You can’t
assign CLI access privileges to a Device Group and Template Admin Role profile. If you assign
superuser privileges for the CLI to a Panorama Admin Role profile, administrators with that role
can access all features regardless of the web interface privileges you assign.
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
Dashboard Controls access to the Dashboard
tab. If you disable this privilege, the
administrator will not see the tab and will
not have access to any of the Dashboard
widgets.
Yes No Yes
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193 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
ACC Controls access to the Application
Command Center (ACC). If you disable
this privilege, the ACC tab will not display
in the web interface. Keep in mind that if
you want to protect the privacy of your
users while still providing access to the
ACC, you can disable the Privacy > Show
Full IP Addresses option and/or the Show
User Names In Logs And Reports option.
Yes No Yes
Monitor Controls access to the Monitor tab. If you
disable this privilege, the administrator
will not see the Monitor tab and will not
have access to any of the logs, packet
captures, session information, reports or
to App Scope. For more granular control
over what monitoring information the
administrator can see, leave the Monitor
option enabled and then enable or disable
specific nodes on the tab as described in
Provide Granular Access to the Monitor
Tab.
Yes No Yes
Policies Controls access to the Policies tab. If you
disable this privilege, the administrator
will not see the Policies tab and will not
have access to any policy information. For
more granular control over what policy
information the administrator can see,
for example to enable access to a specific
type of policy or to enable read-only
access to policy information, leave the
Policies option enabled and then enable
or disable specific nodes on the tab as
described in Provide Granular Access to
the Policy Tab.
Yes No Yes
Objects Controls access to the Objects tab. If you
disable this privilege, the administrator
will not see the Objects tab and will
not have access to any objects, security
profiles, log forwarding profiles,
decryption profiles, or schedules. For
more granular control over what objects
the administrator can see, leave the
Objects option enabled and then enable
Yes No Yes
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194 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
or disable specific nodes on the tab as
described in Provide Granular Access to
the Objects Tab.
Network Controls access to the Network tab. If you
disable this privilege, the administrator
will not see the Network tab and will
not have access to any interface, zone,
VLAN, virtual wire, virtual router, IPsec
tunnel, DHCP, DNS Proxy, GlobalProtect,
or QoS configuration information or
to the network profiles. For more
granular control over what objects the
administrator can see, leave the Network
option enabled and then enable or disable
specific nodes on the tab as described in
Provide Granular Access to the Network
Tab.
Yes No Yes
Device Controls access to the Device tab. If you
disable this privilege, the administrator
will not see the Device tab and will
not have access to any firewall-wide
configuration information, such as UserID, High Availability, server profile or
certificate configuration information. For
more granular control over what objects
the administrator can see, leave the
Device option enabled and then enable
or disable specific nodes on the tab as
described in Provide Granular Access to
the Device Tab.
You can’t enable access
to the Admin Roles or
Administrators nodes for a
role-based administrator even
if you enable full access to the
Device tab.
Yes No Yes
Panorama Controls access to the Panorama
tab. If you disable this privilege, the
administrator will not see the Panorama
tab and will not have access to any
Panorama-wide configuration information,
Yes No Yes
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195 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
such as Managed Devices, Managed
Collectors, or Collector Groups.
For more granular control over what
objects the administrator can see, leave
the Panorama option enabled and then
enable or disable specific nodes on the tab
as described in Provide Granular Access to
the Panorama Tab.
Privacy Controls access to the privacy settings
described in Define User Privacy Settings
in the Admin Role Profile.
Yes No Yes
Validate When disabled, an administrator cannot
validate a configuration.
Yes No Yes
Save Sets the default state (enabled or disabled)
for all the save privileges described below
(Partial Save and Save For Other Admins).
Yes No Yes
• Partial Save When disabled, an administrator cannot
save changes that any administrator made
to the Panorama configuration.
Yes No Yes
• Save For
Other Admins
When disabled, an administrator cannot
save changes that other administrators
made to the Panorama configuration.
Yes No Yes
Commit Sets the default state (enabled or disabled)
for all the commit, push, and revert
privileges described below (Panorama,
Device Groups, Templates, Force
Template Values, Collector Groups,
WildFire Appliance Clusters).
Yes No Yes
• Panorama When disabled, an administrator cannot
commit or revert configuration changes
that any administrators made, including
his or her own changes.
Yes No Yes
• Commit for
Other Admins
When disabled, an administrator cannot
commit or revert configuration changes
that other administrators made.
Yes No Yes
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196 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
• Push All
Changes
When disabled, an administrator cannot
push all configuration changes made by
admins.
Yes No Yes
• Push For
Other Admins
When disabled, an administrator cannot
select and push configuration changes
made by another admin.
Yes No Yes
• Object Level
Changes
When disabled, an administrator cannot
select individual configuration objects to
push.
Yes No Yes
Device Groups When disabled, an administrator cannot
push changes to device groups.
Yes No Yes
Templates When disabled, an administrator cannot
push changes to templates.
Yes No Yes
Force Template
Values
This privilege controls access to the Force
Template Values option in the Push Scope
Selection dialog.
When disabled, an administrator cannot
replace overridden settings in local
firewall configurations with settings that
Panorama pushes from a template.
If you push a configuration
with Force Template Values
enabled, all overridden
values on the firewall are
replaced with values from the
template. Before you use this
option, check for overridden
values on the firewalls to
ensure your commit does
not result in any unexpected
network outages or issues
caused by replacing those
overridden values.
Yes No Yes
Collector Groups When disabled, an administrator cannot
push changes to Collector Groups.
Yes No Yes
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197 | Firewall Administration
Access Level Description Enable Read
Only
Disable
WildFire
Appliance
Clusters
When disabled, an administrator cannot
push changes to WildFire appliance
clusters.
Yes No Yes
Tasks When disabled, an administrator cannot
access the Task Manager.
Yes No Yes
Global Controls access to the global settings
(system alarms) described in Provide
Granular Access to Global Settings.
Yes No Yes
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198 | Firewall Administration
Reference: Port Number Usage
The following tables list the ports that firewalls and Panorama use to communicate with each
other, or with other services on the network.
• Ports Used for Management Functions
• Ports Used for HA
• Ports Used for Panorama
• Ports Used for GlobalProtect
• Ports Used for User-ID
• Ports Used for IPSec
• Ports Used for Routing
• Ports Used for DHCP
• Ports Used for Infrastructure
Ports Used for Management Functions
The firewall and Panorama use the following ports for management functions.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
22 TCP Used for communication from a client system to the firewall CLI
interface.
80 TCP The port the firewall listens on for Online Certificate Status
Protocol (OCSP) updates when acting as an OCSP responder.
Port 80 is also used for OCSP verification if specified in
the server certificate.
123 UDP Port the firewall uses for NTP updates.
443 TCP Used for communication from a client system to the firewall web
interface. This is also the port the firewall and User-ID agent
listens on for updates when you Enable VM Monitoring to Track
Changes on the Virtual Network.
Used for outbound communications from the firewall to the Palo
Alto Networks Update Server.
For monitoring an AWS environment, this is the only port that is
used.
For monitoring a VMware vCenter/ESXi environment, the
listening port defaults to 443, but it is configurable.
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199 | Firewall Administration
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
4443 TCP Used as an alternative SSL port for HTTPS.
162 UDP Port the firewall, Panorama, or a Log Collector uses to Forward
Traps to an SNMP Manager.
This port doesn’t need to be open on the Palo
Alto Networks firewall. You must configure the
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
manager to listen on this port. For details, refer to the
documentation of your SNMP management software.
161 UDP Port the firewall listens on for polling requests (GET messages)
from the SNMP manager.
514
514
6514
TCP
UDP
SSL
Port that the firewall, Panorama, or a Log Collector uses to
send logs to a syslog server if you Configure Syslog Monitoring,
and the ports that the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent or
Windows-based User-ID agent listens on for authentication
syslog messages.
2055 UDP Default port the firewall uses to send NetFlow records to a
NetFlow collector if you Configure NetFlow Exports, but this is
configurable.
5008 TCP Port the GlobalProtect Mobile Security Manager listens on for
HIP requests from the GlobalProtect gateways.
If you are using a third-party MDM system, you can configure the
gateway to use a different port as required by the MDM vendor.
6080
6081
6082
TCP
TLS 1.2
TCP
Ports used for User-ID™ Authentication Portal:
• 6080 for NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication
• 6081 for Authentication Portal without an SSL/TLS Server
Profile
• 6082 for Authentication Portal with an SSL/TLS Server Profile
10443 SSL Port that the firewall and Panorama use to provide contextual
information about a threat or to seamlessly shift your threat
investigation to the Threat Vault and AutoFocus.
Ports Used for HA
Firewalls configured as High Availability (HA) peers must be able to communicate with each
other to maintain state information (HA1 control link) and synchronize data (HA2 data link). In
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200 | Firewall Administration
Active/Active HA deployments the peer firewalls must also forward packets to the HA peer that
owns the session. The HA3 link is a Layer 2 (MAC-in-MAC) link and it does not support Layer 3
addressing or encryption.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
28769
28260
TCP
TCP
Used for the HA1 control link for clear text communication
between the HA peer firewalls. The HA1 link is a Layer 3 link and
requires an IP address.
28 TCP Used for the HA1 control link for encrypted communication (SSH
over TCP) between the HA peer firewalls.
28770 TCP Listening port for HA1 backup links.
28771 TCP Used for heartbeat backups. Palo Alto Networks recommends
enabling heartbeat backup on the MGT interface if you use an inband port for the HA1 or the HA1 backup links.
99
29281
IP
UDP
Used for the HA2 link to synchronize sessions, forwarding tables,
IPSec security associations and ARP tables between firewalls in
an HA pair. Data flow on the HA2 link is always unidirectional
(except for the HA2 keep-alive); it flows from the active firewall
(Active/Passive) or active-primary (Active/Active) to the passive
firewall (Active/Passive) or active-secondary (Active/Active).
The HA2 link is a Layer 2 link, and it uses ether type 0x7261 by
default.
The HA data link can also be configured to use either IP (protocol
number 99) or UDP (port 29281) as the transport, and thereby
allow the HA data link to span subnets.
Ports Used for Panorama
Panorama uses the following ports.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
22 TCP Used for communication from a client system to the
Panorama CLI interface.
443 TCP Used for communication from a client system to the
Panorama web interface.
Used for outbound communications from Panorama to the
Palo Alto Networks Update Server.
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201 | Firewall Administration
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
444 TCP Used for communication between Panorama and Strata
Logging Service.
3978 TCP Used for communication between Panorama and
managed firewalls or managed collectors, as well as for
communication among managed collectors in a Collector
Group:
• For communication between Panorama and firewalls.
This connection is initiated from the managed firewall
to Panorama and facilitates a bi-directional data
exchange on which the firewalls forward logs to
Panorama and Panorama pushes configuration changes
to the firewalls. Context switching commands are sent
over the same connection.
• Log Collectors use this destination port to forward logs
to Panorama.
• For communication with the default Log Collector on
an M-Series appliance in Panorama mode and with
Dedicated Log Collectors.
28443 TCP Used for managed devices (firewalls and Log Collectors) to
retrieve software and content updates from Panorama.
Only devices that run PAN-OS 8.x and later
releases retrieve updates from Panorama over
this port. For devices running earlier releases,
Panorama pushes the update packages over
port 3978.
28769
28260
TCP
TCP
Used for the HA connectivity and synchronization
between Panorama HA peers using clear text
communication. Communication can be initiated by either
peer.
ICMP must be allowed on the network for
successful Panorama HA peer connection and
synchronization. Additionally, ICMP is required
to monitor the failover metrics used to detect
whether an HA failover is required.
28 TCP Used for the HA connectivity and synchronization
between Panorama HA peers using encrypted
communication (SSH over TCP). Communication can be
initiated by either peer.
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202 | Firewall Administration
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
Used for communication between Log Collectors in a
Collector Group for log distribution.
28270
49190
TCP Used for communication among Log Collectors in a
Collector Group for log distribution.
2049 TCP Used by the Panorama virtual appliance to write logs to
the NFS datastore.
10443 SSL Port that Panorama uses to provide contextual information
about a threat or to seamlessly shift your threat
investigation to the Threat Vault and AutoFocus.
23000 to
23999
TCP, UDP, or
SSL
Used for Syslog communication between Panorama and
the Traps ESM components.
Ports Used for GlobalProtect
GlobalProtect uses the following ports.
Destination Port Protocol Description
443 TCP Used for communication between GlobalProtect apps and
portals, or GlobalProtect apps and gateways and for SSL tunnel
connections.
GlobalProtect gateways also use this port to collect host
information from GlobalProtect apps and perform host
information profile (HIP) checks.
4501 UDP Used for IPSec tunnel connections between GlobalProtect apps
and gateways.
For tips on how to use a loopback interface to provide access to GlobalProtect on different ports
and addresses, refer to Can GlobalProtect Portal Page be Configured tobe Accessed on any Port?
Ports Used for User-ID
User-ID is a feature that enables mapping of user IP addresses to usernames and group
memberships, enabling user- or group-based policy and visibility into user activity on your
network (for example, to be able to quickly track down a user who may be the victim of a threat).
To perform this mapping, the firewall, the User-ID agent (either installed on a Windows-based
system or the PAN-OS integrated agent running on the firewall), and/or the Terminal Server agent
must be able to connect to directory services on your network to perform Group Mapping and
User Mapping. Additionally, if the agents are running on systems external to the firewall, they
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203 | Firewall Administration
must be able to connect to the firewall to communicate the IP address to username mappings to
the firewall. The following table lists the communication requirements for User-ID along with the
port numbers required to establish connections.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
389 TCP Port the firewall uses to connect to an LDAP server (plaintext
or Start Transport Layer Security (Start TLS) to Map Users to
Groups.
3268 TCP Port the firewall uses to connect to an Active Directory global
catalog server (plaintext or Start TLS) to Map Users to Groups.
636 TCP Port the firewall uses for LDAP over SSL connections with an
LDAP server to Map Users to Groups.
3269 TCP Port the firewall uses for LDAP over SSL connections with an
Active Directory global catalog server to Map Users to Groups.
514
6514
TCP
UDP
SSL
Port the User-ID agent listens on for authentication syslog
messages if you Configure User-ID to Monitor Syslog Senders
for User Mapping. The port depends on the type of agent and
protocol:
• PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent—Port 6514 for SSL and port
514 for UDP.
• Windows-based User-ID agent—Port 514 for both TCP and
UDP.
5007 TCP Port the firewall listens on for user mapping information. The
agent sends the IP address and username mapping along with a
timestamp whenever it learns of a new or updated mapping. In
addition, it refreshes known mappings.
5006 TCP Port the User-ID agent listens on for XML API requests. The
source for this communication is typically the system running a
script that invokes the API.
88 UDP/TCP Port the User-ID agent uses to authenticate to a Kerberos server.
The firewall tries UDP first and falls back to TCP.
1812 UDP Port the User-ID agent uses to authenticate to a RADIUS server.
49 TCP Port the User-ID agent uses to authenticate to a TACACS+
server.
135 TCP Port the User-ID agent uses to establish TCP-based WMI
connections with the Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
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204 | Firewall Administration
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
Endpoint Mapper. The Endpoint Mapper then assigns the agent
a randomly assigned port in the 49152-65535 port range. The
agent uses this connection to make RPC queries for Exchange
Server or AD server security logs, session tables. This is also the
port used to access Terminal Servers.
The User-ID agent also uses this port to connect to client systems
to perform Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
probing.
139 TCP Port the User-ID agent uses to establish TCP-based NetBIOS
connections to the AD server so that it can send RPC queries for
security logs and session information.
The User-ID agent also uses this port to connect to client systems
for NetBIOS probing (supported on the Windows-based User-ID
agent only).
445 TCP Port the User-ID agent uses to connect to the Active Directory
(AD) using TCP-based SMB connections to the AD server for
access to user logon information (print spooler and Net Logon).
5985 HTTP Port the User-ID agent uses to monitor security logs and session
information with the WinRM protocol over HTTP.
5986 HTTPS Port the User-ID agent uses to monitor security logs and session
information with the WinRM protocol over HTTPS.
5009 TCP Port the firewall uses to connect to the Terminal Server Agent.
Ports Used for IPSec
The firewall and Panorama use the following ports for IPSec functions.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
500 UDP Port used by IKE on the management plane to connect with
remote IKE peers.
4500 UDP Port used by IKE on the management plane to connect with
remote IKE peers.
4510 UDP Port used by the dataplane to send requests to IKE.
4511 UDP Port used by the dataplane to send requests to keymgr.
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205 | Firewall Administration
Ports Used for Routing
The firewall and Panorama use the following ports for routing functions.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
179 TCP Port used by BGP to connect to peers.
3784
3785
4784
UDP Ports used by BGP to connect to peers.
520 UDP Port used for RIPv2.
89 IP Port used for OSPF.
103 IP Port used for Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM).
Ports Used for DHCP
The firewall and Panorama use the following ports for DHCP functions.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
67
68
546
547
UDP Ports used as DHCP server listening ports.
Ports Used for Infrastructure
The firewall and Panorama use the following ports for infrastructure functions.
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
111 TCP/UDP Port used as a port mapper.
23 TCP/UDP Port used for the Telnet application protocol.
69 TCP/UDP Port used for TFTP.
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206 | Firewall Administration
Destination
Port
Protocol Description
2049 TCP/UDP Port used for the Network File System (NFS).
28260 TCP Port used by internal sysd IPC communication for internal
processes.
28261 TCP Port used by internal md applications to manage internal
processes.
Dynamic TCP/UDP Dynamic port used by NFS operations to a host dataplane file
system in the management plane.
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207 | Firewall Administration
Reset the Firewall to Factory Default Settings
Resetting the firewall to factory defaults will result in the loss of all configuration settings and
logs.
STEP 1 | Set up a console connection to the firewall.
1. Connect a serial cable from your computer to the Console port and connect to the
firewall using terminal emulation software (9600-8-N-1).
If your computer does not have a 9-pin serial port, use a USB-to-serial port
connector.
2. Enter your login credentials.
3. Enter the following CLI command:
debug system maintenance-mode
The firewall will reboot in the maintenance mode.
STEP 2 | Reset the system to factory default settings.
1. When the firewall reboots, press Enter to continue to the maintenance mode menu.
2. Select Factory Reset and press Enter.
3. Select Factory Reset and press Enter again.
The firewall will reboot without any configuration settings. The default username and
password to log in to the firewall is admin/admin.
To perform initial configuration on the firewall and to set up network connectivity, see
Integrate the Firewall into Your Management Network.
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208 | Firewall Administration
Bootstrap the Firewall
Bootstrapping speeds up the process of configuring and licensing the firewall to make it
operational on the network with or without Internet access. Bootstrapping allows you to choose
whether to configure the firewall with a basic configuration file (init-cfg.txt) so that it can connect
to Panorama and obtain the complete configuration or to fully configure the firewall with the
basic configuration and the optional bootstrap.xml file.
• USB Flash Drive Support
• Sample init-cfg.txt Files
• Prepare a USB Flash Drive for Bootstrapping a Firewall
• Bootstrap a Firewall Using a USB Flash Drive
USB Flash Drive Support
The USB flash drive that bootstraps a hardware-based Palo Alto Networks firewall must support
one of the following:
• File Allocation Table 32 (FAT32)
• Third Extended File System (ext3)
The firewall can bootstrap from the following flash drives with USB2.0 or USB3.0 connectivity:
Supported USB Flash Drives
Kingston
• Kingston SE9 8GB (2.0)
• Kingston SE9 16GB (3.0)
• Kingston SE9 32GB (3.0)
SanDisk
• SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 8GB (2.0)
• SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 16GB (2.0)
• SanDisk Cruzer CZ36 16GB (2.0)
• SanDisk Cruzer CZ36 32GB (2.0)
• SanDisk Extreme CZ80 32GB (3.0)
Silicon Power
• Silicon Power Jewel 32GB (3.0)
• Silicon Power Blaze 16GB (3.0)
PNY
• PNY Attache 16GB (2.0)
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Supported USB Flash Drives
• PNY Turbo 32GB (3.0)
Sample init-cfg.txt Files
An init-cfg.txt file is required for the bootstrap process; this file is a basic configuration file that
you create using a text editor. To create this file, see 5 The following sample init-cfg.txt files show
the parameters that are supported in the file; the parameters that you must provide are in bold.
Sample init-cfg.txt (Static IP Address) Sample init-cfg.txt (DHCP Client)
type=static
ip-address=10.5.107.19
default-gateway=10.5.107.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
ipv6-address=2001:400:f00::1/64
ipv6-defaultgateway=2001:400:f00::2
hostname=Ca-FW-DC1
panorama-server=10.5.107.20
panorama-server-2=10.5.107.21
tplname=FINANCE_TG4
dgname=finance_dg
dns-primary=10.5.6.6
dns-secondary=10.5.6.7
op-command-modes=multivsys,jumbo-frame
dhcp-send-hostname=no
dhcp-send-client-id=no
dhcp-accept-server-hostname=no
dhcp-accept-server-domain=no
type=dhcp-client
ip-address=
default-gateway=
netmask=
ipv6-address=
ipv6-default-gateway=
hostname=Ca-FW-DC1
panorama-server=10.5.107.20
panorama-server-2=10.5.107.21
tplname=FINANCE_TG4
dgname=finance_dg
dns-primary=10.5.6.6
dns-secondary=10.5.6.7
op-command-modes=multivsys,jumbo-frame
dhcp-send-hostname=yes
dhcp-send-client-id=yes
dhcp-accept-serverhostname=yes
dhcp-accept-server-domain=yes
The following table describes the fields in the init-cfg.txt file. The type is required; if the type is
static, the IP address, default gateway and netmask are required, or the IPv6 address and IPv6
default gateway are required.
Field Description
type (Required) Type of management IP address: static or dhcp-client.
ip-address (Required for IPv4 static management address) IPv4 address. The
firewall ignores this field if the type is dhcp-client.
default-gateway (Required for IPv4 static management address) IPv4 default
gateway for the management interface. The firewall ignores this
field if the type is dhcp-client.
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Field Description
netmask (Required for IPv4 static management address) IPv4 netmask. The
firewall ignores this field if the type is dhcp-client.
ipv6-address (Required for IPv6 static management address) IPv6 address and /
prefix length of the management interface. The firewall ignores this
field if the type is dhcp-client.
ipv6-default-gateway (Required for IPv6 static management address) IPv6 default
gateway for the management interface. The firewall ignores this
field if the type is dhcp-client.
hostname (Optional) Host name for the firewall.
panorama-server (Recommended) IPv4 or IPv6 address of the primary Panorama
server.
panorama-server-2 (Optional) IPv4 or IPv6 address of the secondary Panorama server.
tplname (Recommended) Panorama template name.
dgname (Recommended) Panorama device group name.
dns-primary (Optional) IPv4 or IPv6 address of the primary DNS server.
dns-secondary (Optional) IPv4 or IPv6 address of the secondary DNS server.
vm-auth-key (VM-Series firewalls only) Virtual machine authentication key.
op-command-modes (Optional) Enter multi-vsys, jumbo-frame, or both separated by a
comma only. Enables multiple virtual systems and jumbo frames
while bootstrapping.
dhcp-send-hostname (DHCP client type only) The DHCP server determines a value of yes
or no. If yes, the firewall sends its hostname to the DHCP server.
dhcp-send-client-id (DHCP client type only) The DHCP server determines a value of yes
or no. If yes, the firewall sends its client ID to the DHCP server.
dhcp-accept-serverhostname
(DHCP client type only) The DHCP server determines a value of
yes or no. If yes, the firewall accepts its hostname from the DHCP
server.
dhcp-accept-serverdomain
(DHCP client type only) The DHCP server determines a value of
yes or no. If yes, the firewall accepts its DNS server from the DHCP
server.
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Prepare a USB Flash Drive for Bootstrapping a Firewall
You can use a USB flash drive to bootstrap a physical firewall. However, to do so you must be
running a PAN-OS 7.1.0 or later image and Reset the Firewall to Factory Default Settings. For
security reasons, you can bootstrap a firewall only when it is in factory default state or has all
private data deleted.
STEP 1 | Obtain serial numbers (S/Ns) and auth codes for support subscriptions from your order
fulfillment email.
STEP 2 | Register S/Ns of new firewalls on the Customer Support portal.
1. Go to support.paloaltonetworks.com, log in, and select Assets > Devices > Register New
Device > Register device using Serial Number or Authorization Code.
2. Follow the steps to Register the Firewall.
3. Click Submit.
STEP 3 | Activate authorization codes on the Customer Support portal, which creates license keys.
1. Go to support.paloaltonetworks.com, log in, and select the Assets > Devices on the lefthand navigation pane.
2. For each device S/N you just registered, click the Action link (the pencil icon).
3. Under Activate Licenses, select Activate Auth-Code.
4. Enter the Authorization code and click Agree and Submit.
STEP 4 | Add the S/Ns in Panorama.
Complete Step 1 in Add a Firewall as a Managed Device in the Panorama Administrator’s
Guide.
STEP 5 | Create the init-cfg.txt file.
Create the init-cfg.txt file, a mandatory file that provides bootstrap parameters. The fields are
described in Sample init-cfg.txt Files.
If the init-cfg.txt file is missing, the bootstrap process will fail and the firewall will boot
up with the default configuration in the normal boot-up sequence.
There are no spaces between the key and value in each field; do not add spaces because they
cause failures during parsing on the management server side.
You can have multiple init-cfg.txt files—one each for different remote sites—by prepending the
S/N to the file name. For example:
0008C200105-init-cfg.txt
0008C200107-init-cfg.txt
If no prepended filename is present, the firewall uses the init-cfg.txt file and proceeds with
bootstrapping.
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STEP 6 | (Optional) Create the bootstrap.xml file.
The optional bootstrap.xml file is a complete firewall configuration that you can export from an
existing production firewall.
1. Select Device > Setup > Operations > Export named configuration snapshot.
2. Select the Name of the saved or the running configuration.
3. Click OK.
4. Rename the file as bootstrap.xml.
STEP 7 | Create and download the bootstrap bundle from the Customer Support portal.
For a physical firewall, the bootstrap bundle requires only the /license and /config directories.
Use one of the following methods to create and download the bootstrap bundle:
• Use Method 1 to create a bootstrap bundle specific to a remote site (you have only one
init-cfg.txt file).
• Use Method 2 to create one bootstrap bundle for multiple sites.
Method 1
1. On your local system, go to support.paloaltonetworks.com and log in.
2. Select Assets.
3. Select the S/N of the firewall you want to bootstrap.
4. Select Bootstrap Container.
5. Click Select.
6. Upload and Open the init-cfg.txt file you created.
7. (Optional) Select the bootstrap.xml file you created and Upload Files.
You must use a bootstrap.xml file from a firewall of the same model and PANOS version.
8. Select Bootstrap Container Download to download a tar.gz file named bootstrap_<S/
N>_<date>.tar.gz to your local system. This bootstrap container includes the license
keys associated with the S/N of the firewall.
Method 2
Create a tar.gz file on your local system with two top-level directories: /license and /config.
Include all licenses and all init-cfg.txt files with S/Ns prepended to the filenames.
The license key files you download from the Customer Support portal have the S/N in the
license file name. PAN-OS checks the S/N in the file name against the firewall S/N while
executing the bootstrap process.
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213 | Firewall Administration
STEP 8 | Import the tar.gz file you created (to a firewall running a PAN-OS 7.1.0 or later image) using
Secure Copy (SCP) or TFTP.
Access the CLI and enter one of the following commands:
• tftp import bootstrap-bundle file <path and filename> from <host IP
address>
For example:
tftp import bootstrap-bundle file /home/userx/bootstrap/devices/
pa5000.tar.gz from 10.1.2.3
• scp import bootstrap-bundle from <<user>@<host>:<path to file>>
For example:
scp import bootstrap-bundle from userx@10.1.2.3:/home/userx/
bootstrap/devices/pa200_bootstrap_bundle.tar.gz
STEP 9 | Prepare the USB flash drive.
1. Insert the USB flash drive into the firewall that you used in the prior step.
2. Enter the following CLI operational command, using your tar.gz filename in place of
“pa5000.tar.gz”. This command formats the USB flash drive, unzips the file, and
validates the USB flash drive:
request system bootstrap-usb prepare from pa5000.tar.gz
3. Press y to continue. The following message displays when the USB drive is ready:
USB prepare completed successfully.
4. Remove the USB flash drive from the firewall.
5. You can prepare as many USB flash drives as needed.
STEP 10 | Deliver the USB flash drive to your remote site.
If you used Method 2 to create the bootstrap bundle, you can use the same USB flash drive
content for bootstrapping firewalls at multiple remote sites. You can translate the content into
multiple USB flash drives or a single USB flash drive used multiple times.
Bootstrap a Firewall Using a USB Flash Drive
After you receive a new Palo Alto Networks firewall and a USB flash drive loaded with bootstrap
files, you can bootstrap the firewall.
Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac operating systems are unable to read the bootstrap
USB flash drive because the drive is formatted using an ext4 file system. You must install
third-party software or use a Linux system to read the USB drive.
STEP 1 | The firewall must be in a factory default state or must have all private data deleted.
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214 | Firewall Administration
STEP 2 | To ensure connectivity with your corporate headquarters, cable the firewall by connecting
the management interface (MGT) using an Ethernet cable to one of the following:
• An upstream modem
• A port on the switch or router
• An Ethernet jack in the wall
STEP 3 | Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port on the firewall and power on the firewall. The
factory default firewall bootstraps itself from the USB flash drive.
The firewall Status light turns from yellow to green when the firewall is configured;
autocommit is successful.
STEP 4 | Verify bootstrap completion. You can see basic status logs on the console during the
bootstrap and you can verify that the process is complete.
1. If you included Panorama values (panorama-server, tplname, and dgname) in your initcfg.txt file, check Panorama managed devices, device group, and template name.
2. Verify the general system settings and configuration by accessing the web interface and
selecting Dashboard > Widgets > System or by using the CLI operational commands
show system info and show config running.
3. Verify the license installation by selecting Device > Licenses or by using the CLI
operational command request license info.
4. If you have Panorama configured, manage the content versions and software versions
from Panorama. If you do not have Panorama configured, use the web interface to
manage content versions and software versions.
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215 | Firewall Administration
STEP 5 | (Panorama managed firewalls only) Create a device registration authentication key and add it
to the firewall.
This is required to successfully add a bootstrapped firewall to Panorama management. The
device registration authentication key has a finite lifetime and including the device registration
authentication key in the init-cfg.txt file is not supported.
1. Log in to the Panorama web interface.
2. Select Panorama > Device Registration Auth Key and Add a new authentication key.
3. Configure the authentication key.
• Name—Add a descriptive name for the authentication key.
• Lifetime—Specify the key lifetime to limit how long you can use the authentication
key to onboard new firewalls.
• Count—Specify how many times you can use the authentication key to onboard new
firewalls.
• Device Type—Specify that this authentication key is used to authenticate only a
Firewall.
You can select Any to use the device registration authentication key to
onboard firewalls, Log Collectors, and WildFire appliances.
• (Optional) Devices—Enter one or more device serial numbers to specify for which
firewalls the authentication key is valid.
4. Click OK.
When prompted, Copy Auth Key and Close.
5. Log in to the firewall web interface.
You can also log in to the firewall CLI to add the device registration
authentication key.
admin> request authkey set <auth key>
6. Select Device > Setup > Management and edit the Panorama Settings.
7. Paste the device registration authentication key you copied in the previous step and click
OK.
8. Commit.
9. Log in to the Panorama web interface and select Panorama > Managed Devices >
Summary to verify the firewall is Connected to Panorama
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216 | Device Telemetry
Device telemetry collects data about your next-generation firewall or Panorama, and shares it
with Palo Alto Networks by uploading the data to Strata Logging Service. This data is used to
power telemetry apps, and for sharing threat intelligence.
• Device Telemetry Overview
• Device Telemetry Collection and Transmission Intervals
• Manage Device Telemetry
• Monitor Device Telemetry
• Sample the Data that Device Telemetry Collects
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217 | Device Telemetry
Device Telemetry Overview
Device telemetry collects data about your next-generation firewall or Panorama and shares it with
Palo Alto Networks by uploading the data to Strata Logging Service. This data is used to power
telemetry apps, which are cloud-based applications that make it easy to monitor and manage your
next-generation firewalls and Panoramas. These apps improve your visibility into device health,
performance, capacity planning, and configuration. Through these apps, you can maximize the
benefits you enjoy from the products and services that Palo Alto Networks delivers.
Telemetry data is also used for sharing threat intelligence, providing enhanced intrusion
prevention, evaluation of threat signatures, as well as improved malware detection within PANDB URL filtering, DNS-based command-and-control (C2) signatures, and WildFire.
(PAN-OS version 10.2.4 and later versions of 10.2) Palo Alto Networks automatically selects
recommended settings when you configure telemetry. When you commit the settings, PAN-OS
begins collecting and sending telemetry data. See Disable Device Telemetry to manually opt out
of device telemetry collection.
Telemetry data is collected and stored locally on your device for a limited period of time. This data
is shared with Palo Alto Networks only if you configure a destination region for the data. If your
organization has a Strata Logging Service license, then you can only send the data to the same
region as where your Strata Logging Service instance resides. If your organization does not have a
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218 | Device Telemetry
Strata Logging Service license, then you must install a device certificate in order to share this data.
In this case, you can choose any available region, although you must conform to all applicable local
laws regarding privacy and data storage.
Telemetry data is collected and shared with Palo Alto Networks on predefined collection intervals
starting from the time when the firewall is turned on. These predefined intervals are set by the
PAN-OS analytics engine, however you can control whether data is collected and shared by
enabling/disabling categories of data. You can also monitor the current status of data collection
and transmission.
The size of each bundle of telemetry data depends on the features enabled on your firewall, the
number of metrics collected, and the model of the firewall. PAN-OS collects metrics related to
operational health and performance, such as CPU and memory, more frequently.
You can obtain a live sample of the data that your firewall is collecting for telemetry purposes. For
a complete description of all the telemetry metrics that can be shared with Palo Alto Networks,
including the privacy implication for each metric, see the PAN-OS Device Telemetry Metrics
Reference Guide.
The automatically created user _cliuser may appear under Logged in Admins on the
dashboard while telemetry is enabled. This user is created only for telemetry collection.
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Device Telemetry Collection and Transmission Intervals
PAN-OS collects and sends telemetry data on fixed intervals. Collection is defined on a metric by
metric basis, and can be one of:
• Every 20 minutes.
• Every hour.
• Daily.
Telemetry is collected into data bundles. Each bundle is an aggregation of all the data collected
up to the point of data transmission. These bundles are stored on the device until a transmission
event. When a bundle has been successfully sent to Palo Alto Networks, it is deleted from the
device.
If an error occurs while sending a bundle to Palo Alto Networks, the firewall waits 10 minutes and
then tries again. The firewall will continue to try to send the bundle until it is either successful, or
it needs the storage space to collect new telemetry data.
At every regular transmission interval, the firewall begins by sending the bundles scheduled for
that event. After a successful transfer of those bundles, the firewall sends any failed bundles that
it might have stored from previous transmission events.
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220 | Device Telemetry
Manage Device Telemetry
To manage device telemetry you can:
• Enable Device Telemetry
• Disable Device Telemetry
• Enable Service Routes for Telemetry
• Manage the Data that Device Telemetry Collects
• Manage Historical Device Telemetry
Enable Device Telemetry
(PAN-OS version 10.2.4 and later versions of 10.2) Device Telemetry is automatically
enabled.
By default, your device does not share data with Palo Alto Networks. If sharing is enabled,
you can stop sharing all device telemetry by: Device > Setup > Telemetry, uncheck the Enable
Telemetry box, and then commit your change.
To enable Device Telemetry so that data is shared with Palo Alto Networks:
STEP 1 | Enable Strata Logging Service.
1. If your organization does not have a Strata Logging Service license, install a device
certificate if one is not already installed on your device.
If your organization does have a Strata Logging Service license, make sure it is activated.
2. Make sure that your network is properly configured so that the firewall can send data to
Strata Logging Service.
STEP 2 | Navigate to Device > Setup > Telemetry
STEP 3 | Edit the Telemetry widget.
STEP 4 | In Telemetry Destination, select your region. If your organization is using Strata Logging
Service, you must use the same region as your Strata Logging Service configuration.
STEP 5 | Click OK, and then commit your changes.
Disable Device Telemetry
If your next-generation firewall is configured to share data with Palo Alto Networks, you can
disable this sharing by:
STEP 1 | Navigate to Device > Setup > Telemetry
STEP 2 | Edit the Telemetry widget.
STEP 3 | Uncheck the Enable Telemetry box.
STEP 4 | Click OK, and then commit your changes.
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221 | Device Telemetry
STEP 5 | Any telemetry data currently stored in Strata Logging Service is automatically purged one
year after your firewall uploaded it. Optionally, if you do not want the data to reside in Strata
Logging Service for this amount of time after you disable telemetry, open a support ticket
and ask Palo Alto Networks to purge your telemetry data.
Enable Service Routes for Telemetry
You can configure specific configuration requirements for device telemetry that collects data
about your next-generation firewall or Panorama. For each virtual system, you can configure
service routes to use specific interfaces for outbound telemetry data and share it by uploading to
Strata Logging Service.
STEP 1 | Select Device > Setup > Services.
STEP 2 | Click the Service Route Configuration link under Services Features.
STEP 3 | Select Customize.
STEP 4 | Select IPv4.
STEP 5 | Select the Palo Alto Networks Service.
Choose the custom Source Interface you want to use as the interface for telemetry.
Choose the custom Source Address associated with the interface.
STEP 6 | Commit the configuration.
Manage the Data the Device Telemetry Collects
Select Device > Setup > Telemetry to see the currently collected telemetry categories. To change
these categories, edit the Telemetry widget. Deselect any categories that you don't want the
firewall to collect, OK, and then commit the change.
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(PAN-OS version 10.2.4 and later versions of 10.2) The telemetry region is auto-selected.
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To stop sharing all device telemetry, uncheck the Enable Telemetry box, and then commit
your change.
Manage Historical Device Telemetry
Device Telemetry changed significantly for the PAN-OS 10.2 release. Prior to 10.0, telemetry
data was mostly of interest for threat intelligence purposes. As of 10.0, threat intelligence metrics
are still a large portion the data collected by the device, but a great deal more data involving the
health, performance, and configuration of the device is collected as well.
In other words, PAN-OS 10.2 device telemetry extends the data that was collected for previous
releases. PAN-OS 10.2 also sends telemetry data to a different cloud location than did prior
releases. But the historical telemetry support still exists for next-generation firewalls running
PAN-OS 10.0. The only difference is that the 10.2 device telemetry user interface is not capable
of managing this historical data collection.
If you have an existing next-generation firewall, and you have any of the historical telemetry data
categories enabled, then when you upgrade to PAN-OS 10.2 your firewall will continue to collect
and share this information. If you want to turn this telemetry data sharing off, use the following
CLI commands:
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service
application-reports no
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service threatprevention-reports no
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service threatprevention-information no
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set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service threatprevention-pcap no
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service passivedns-monitoring no
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service urlreports no
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service healthperformance-reports no
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service fileidentification-reports no
If you have a 10.2 firewall and this telemetry sharing is turned off, but you want to share this data
with Palo Alto Networks, then you can turn it on using:
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service
application-reports yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service threatprevention-reports yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service threatprevention-information yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service threatprevention-pcap yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service passivedns-monitoring yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service urlreports yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service healthperformance-reports yes
set deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service fileidentification-reports yes
You can see whether your device is collecting and sharing this historical telemetry data using the
following CLI command:
show deviceconfig system update-schedule statistics-service
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Monitor Device Telemetry
PAN-OS shows you the sharing status for each telemetry category. Widgets for each metrics
category are available at Device > Setup > Telemetry.
In the event of a failure, your device will retry the send attempt at the next transmission time. If
the problem persists, check to make sure that your devices are properly configured to send data
to Strata Logging Service:
• If your organization has a Strata Logging Service license, then make sure your Strata Logging
Service license has been activated, and that your firewall is configured to use Strata Logging
Service.
• If your organization does not have a Strata Logging Service license, then make sure you have
installed a device certificate, and that your network is configured to allow traffic to Strata
Logging Service.
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Sample the Data that Device Telemetry Collects
You can download a live example of the data that device telemetry collects and shares with Palo
Alto Networks. To do this, go to Device > Setup > Telemetry, and edit the Telemetry widget.
Then click Generate Telemetry File.
(PAN-OS version 10.2.4 and later versions of 10.2)
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The data collection will take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your firewall. When the
process completes, click Download Device Telemetry Data. The telemetry bundle is a compressed
tar ball, and it is placed in your default browser download directory.
For a description of every metric that device telemetry collects and shares with Palo Alto
Networks, see the PAN-OS Device Telemetry Metrics Reference Guide.
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228 | Authentication
Authentication is a method for protecting services and applications by verifying the identities of
users so that only legitimate users have access. Several firewall and Panorama features require
authentication. Administrators authenticate to access the web interface, CLI, or XML API of the
firewall and Panorama. End users authenticate through Authentication Portal or GlobalProtect to
access various services and applications. You can choose from several authentication services to
protect your network and to accommodate your existing security infrastructure while ensuring a
smooth user experience.
If you have a public key infrastructure, you can deploy certificates to enable authentication
without users having to manually respond to login challenges (see Certificate Management).
Alternatively, or in addition to certificates, you can implement interactive authentication, which
requires users to authenticate using one or more methods. The following topics describe how to
implement, test, and troubleshoot the different types of interactive authentication:
• Authentication Types
• Plan Your Authentication Deployment
• Configure Multi-Factor Authentication
• Configure SAML Authentication
• Configure Kerberos Single Sign-On
• Configure Kerberos Server Authentication
• Configure TACACS+ Authentication
• Configure RADIUS Authentication
• Configure LDAP Authentication
• Connection Timeouts for Authentication Servers
• Configure Local Database Authentication
• Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence
• Test Authentication Server Connectivity
• Authentication Policy
• Troubleshoot Authentication Issues
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229 | Authentication
Authentication Types
• External Authentication Services
• Multi-Factor Authentication
• SAML
• Kerberos
• TACACS+
• RADIUS
• LDAP
• Local Authentication
External Authentication Services
The firewall and Panorama can use external servers to control administrative access to the
web interface and end user access to services or applications through Authentication Portal
and GlobalProtect. In this context, any authentication service that is not local to the firewall or
Panorama is considered external, regardless of whether the service is internal (such as Kerberos)
or external (such as a SAML identity provider) relative to your network. The server types that
the firewall and Panorama can integrate with include Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), SAML,
Kerberos, TACACS+, RADIUS, and LDAP. Although you can also use the Local Authentication
services that the firewall and Panorama support, usually external services are preferable because
they provide:
• Central management of all user accounts in an external identity store. All the supported
external services provide this option for end users and administrators.
• Central management of account authorization (role and access domain assignments). SAML,
TACACS+, and RADIUS support this option for administrators.
• Single sign-on (SSO), which enables users to authenticate only once for access to multiple
services and applications. SAML and Kerberos support SSO.
• Multiple authentication challenges of different types (factors) to protect your most sensitive
services and applications. MFA services support this option.
Authentication through an external service requires a server profile that defines how the firewall
connects to the service. You assign the server profile to authentication profiles, which define
settings that you customize for each application and set of users. For example, you can configure
one authentication profile for administrators who access the web interface and another profile for
end users who access a GlobalProtect portal. For details, see Configure an Authentication Profile
and Sequence.
Multi-Factor Authentication
You can Configure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to ensure that each user authenticates
using multiple methods (factors) when accessing highly sensitive services and applications. For
example, you can force users to enter a login password and then enter a verification code that
they receive by phone before allowing access to important financial documents. This approach
helps to prevent attackers from accessing every service and application in your network just by
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stealing passwords. Of course, not every service and application requires the same degree of
protection, and MFA might not be necessary for less sensitive services and applications that users
access frequently. To accommodate a variety of security needs, you can Configure Authentication
Policy rules that trigger MFA or a single authentication factor (such as login credentials or
certificates) based on specific services, applications, and end users.
When choosing how many and which types of authentication factors to enforce, it’s important
to understand how policy evaluation affects the user experience. When a user requests a service
or application, the firewall first evaluates Authentication policy. If the request matches an
Authentication policy rule with MFA enabled, the firewall displays a Authentication Portal web
form so that users can authenticate for the first factor. If authentication succeeds, the firewall
displays an MFA login page for each additional factor. Some MFA services prompt the user
to choose one factor out of two to four, which is useful when some factors are unavailable. If
authentication succeeds for all factors, the firewall evaluates Security policy for the requested
service or application.
To reduce the frequency of authentication challenges that interrupt the user workflow,
configure the first factor to use Kerberos or SAML single sign-on (SSO) authentication.
To implement MFA for GlobalProtect, refer to Configure GlobalProtect to facilitate multifactor authentication notifications.
You cannot use MFA authentication profiles in authentication sequences.
For end-user authentication via Authentication Policy, the firewall directly integrates with several
MFA platforms (Duo v2, Okta Adaptive, PingID, and RSA SecurID), as well as integrating through
RADIUS or SAML for all other MFA platforms. For remote user authentication to GlobalProtect
portals and gateways and for administrator authentication to the Panorama and PAN-OS web
interface, the firewall integrates with MFA vendors using RADIUS and SAML only.
The firewall supports the following MFA factors:
Factor Description
Push An endpoint device (such as a phone or tablet) prompts the user to
allow or deny authentication.
Short message
service (SMS)
An SMS message on the endpoint device prompts the user to allow
or deny authentication. In some cases, the endpoint device provides a
code that the user must enter in the MFA login page.
Voice An automated phone call prompts the user to authenticate by pressing
a key on the phone or entering a code in the MFA login page.
One-time password
(OTP)
An endpoint device provides an automatically generated alphanumeric
string, which the user enters in the MFA login page to enable
authentication for a single transaction or session.
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SAML
You can use Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 to authenticate administrators who
access the firewall or Panorama web interface and end users who access web applications that
are internal or external to your organization. In environments where each user accesses many
applications and authenticating for each one would impede user productivity, you can configure
SAML single sign-on (SSO) to enable one login to access multiple applications. Likewise, SAML
single logout (SLO) enables a user to end sessions for multiple applications by logging out of just
one session. SSO is available to administrators who access the web interface and to end users
who access applications through GlobalProtect or Authentication Portal. SLO is available to
administrators and GlobalProtect end users, but not to Authentication Portal end users. When you
configure SAML authentication on the firewall or on Panorama, you can specify SAML attributes
for administrator authorization. SAML attributes enable you to quickly change the roles, access
domains, and user groups of administrators through your directory service, which is often easier
than reconfiguring settings on the firewall or Panorama.
Administrators cannot use SAML to authenticate to the CLI on the firewall or Panorama.
You cannot use SAML authentication profiles in authentication sequences.
SAML authentication requires a service provider (the firewall or Panorama), which controls access
to applications, and an identity provider (IdP) such as PingFederate, which authenticates users.
When a user requests a service or application, the firewall or Panorama intercepts the request and
redirects the user to the IdP for authentication. The IdP then authenticates the user and returns
a SAML assertion, which indicates authentication succeeded or failed. SAML Authentication for
Authentication Portal End Users illustrates SAML authentication for an end user who accesses
applications through Authentication Portal.
Figure 1: SAML Authentication for Authentication Portal End Users
Kerberos
Kerberos is an authentication protocol that enables a secure exchange of information between
parties over an insecure network using unique keys (called tickets) to identify the parties. The
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firewall and Panorama support two types of Kerberos authentication for administrators and end
users:
• Kerberos server authentication—A Kerberos server profile enables users to natively
authenticate to an Active Directory domain controller or a Kerberos V5-compliant
authentication server. This authentication method is interactive, requiring users to enter
usernames and passwords. For the configuration steps, see Configure Kerberos Server
Authentication.
• Kerberos single sign-on (SSO)—A network that supports Kerberos V5 SSO prompts a user to
log in only for initial access to the network (such as logging in to Microsoft Windows). After
this initial login, the user can access any browser-based service in the network (such as the
firewall web interface) without having to log in again until the SSO session expires. (Your
Kerberos administrator sets the duration of SSO sessions.) If you enable both Kerberos SSO
and another external authentication service (such as a TACACS+ server), the firewall first tries
SSO and, only if that fails, falls back to the external service for authentication. To support
Kerberos SSO, your network requires:
• A Kerberos infrastructure, including a key distribution center (KDC) with an authentication
server (AS) and ticket-granting service (TGS).
• A Kerberos account for the firewall or Panorama that will authenticate users. An account
is required to create a Kerberos keytab, which is a file that contains the principal name and
hashed password of the firewall or Panorama. The SSO process requires the keytab.
For the configuration steps, see Configure Kerberos Single Sign-On.
Kerberos SSO is available only for services and applications that are internal to your
Kerberos environment. To enable SSO for external services and applications, use
SAML.
TACACS+
Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus (TACACS+) is a family of protocols
that enable authentication and authorization through a centralized server. TACACS+ encrypts
usernames and passwords, making it more secure than RADIUS, which encrypts only passwords.
TACACS+ is also more reliable because it uses TCP, whereas RADIUS uses UDP. You can
configure TACACS+ authentication for end users or administrators on the firewall and for
administrators on Panorama. Optionally, you can use TACACS+ Vendor-Specific Attributes (VSAs)
to manage administrator authorization. TACACS+ VSAs enable you to quickly change the roles,
access domains, and user groups of administrators through your directory service instead of
reconfiguring settings on the firewall and Panorama.
The firewall and Panorama support the following TACACS+ attributes and VSAs. Refer to your
TACACS+ server documentation for the steps to define these VSAs on the TACACS+ server.
Name Value
service This attribute is required to identify the VSAs as
specific to Palo Alto Networks. You must set the value
to PaloAlto.
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Name Value
protocol This attribute is required to identify the VSAs as
specific to Palo Alto Networks devices. You must set
the value to firewall.
PaloAlto-Admin-Role A default (dynamic) administrative role name or a
custom administrative role name on the firewall.
PaloAlto-Admin-Access-Domain The name of an access domain for firewall
administrators (configured in the Device > Access
Domains page). Define this VSA if the firewall has
multiple virtual systems.
PaloAlto-Panorama-Admin-Role A default (dynamic) administrative role name or a
custom administrative role name on Panorama.
PaloAlto-Panorama-Admin-AccessDomain
The name of an access domain for Device Group and
Template administrators (configured in the Panorama
> Access Domains page).
PaloAlto-User-Group The name of a user group in the Allow List of an
authentication profile.
RADIUS
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a broadly supported networking
protocol that provides centralized authentication and authorization. You can configure RADIUS
authentication for end users or administrators on the firewall and for administrators on Panorama.
Optionally, you can use RADIUS Vendor-Specific Attributes (VSAs) to manage administrator
authorization. RADIUS VSAs enable you to quickly change the roles, access domains, and user
groups of administrators through your directory service instead of reconfiguring settings on the
firewall and Panorama. You can also configure the firewall to use a RADIUS server for:
• Collecting VSAs from GlobalProtect endpoints.
• Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication.
When sending authentication requests to a RADIUS server, the firewall and Panorama use the
authentication profile name as the network access server (NAS) identifier, even if the profile is
assigned to an authentication sequence for the service (such as administrative access to the web
interface) that initiates the authentication process.
The firewall and Panorama support the following RADIUS VSAs. To define VSAs on a RADIUS
server, you must specify the vendor code (25461 for Palo Alto Networks firewalls or Panorama)
and the VSA name and number. Some VSAs also require a value. Refer to your RADIUS server
documentation for the steps to define these VSAs.
Alternatively, you can download the Palo Alto Networks RADIUS dictionary, which defines
the authentication attributes that the Palo Alto Networks firewall and a RADIUS server use to
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communicate with each other, and install it on your RADIUS server to map the attributes to the
RADIUS binary data.
When you predefine dynamic administrator roles for users on the server, use lower-case to
specify the role (for example, enter superuser, not SuperUser).
When configuring the advanced vendor options on a Cisco Secure Access Control Server
(ACS), you must set both the Vendor Length Field Size and Vendor Type Field Size to 1.
Otherwise, authentication will fail.
Name Number Value
VSAs for administrator account management and authentication
PaloAlto-Admin-Role 1 A default (dynamic) administrative role name or a
custom administrative role name on the firewall.
PaloAlto-Admin-Access-Domain 2 The name of an access domain for firewall
administrators (configured in the Device >
Access Domains page). Define this VSA if the
firewall has multiple virtual systems.
PaloAlto-Panorama-Admin-Role 3 A default (dynamic) administrative role name or a
custom administrative role name on Panorama.
PaloAlto-Panorama-AdminAccess-Domain
4 The name of an access domain for Device Group
and Template administrators (configured in the
Panorama > Access Domains page).
PaloAlto-User-Group 5 The name of a user group that an authentication
profile references.
VSAs forwarded from GlobalProtect endpoints to the RADIUS server
PaloAlto-User-Domain 6
PaloAlto-Client-Source-IP 7
PaloAlto-Client-OS 8
PaloAlto-Client-Hostname 9
PaloAlto-GlobalProtect-ClientVersion
10
Don’t specify a value when you define these
VSAs.
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LDAP
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a standard protocol for accessing information
directories. You can Configure LDAP Authentication for end users and for firewall and Panorama
administrators.
Configuring the firewall to connect to an LDAP server also enables you to define policy rules
based on users and user groups instead of just IP addresses. For the steps, see Map Users to
Groups and Enable User- and Group-Based Policy.
Local Authentication
Although the firewall and Panorama provide local authentication for administrators and end
users, External Authentication Services are preferable in most cases because they provide
central account management. However, you might require special user accounts that you don’t
manage through the directory servers that your organization reserves for regular accounts. For
example, you might define a superuser account that is local to the firewall so that you can access
the firewall even if the directory server is down. In such cases, you can use the following local
authentication methods:
• (Firewall only) Local database authentication—To Configure Local Database Authentication,
you create a database that runs locally on the firewall and contains user accounts (usernames
and passwords or hashed passwords) and user groups. This type of authentication is useful
for creating user accounts that reuse the credentials of existing Unix accounts in cases where
you know only the hashed passwords, not the plaintext passwords. Because local database
authentication is associated with authentication profiles, you can accommodate deployments
where different sets of users require different authentication settings, such as Kerberos
single sign-on (SSO) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). (For details, see Configure an
Authentication Profile and Sequence). For administrator accounts that use an authentication
profile, password complexity and expiration settings are not applied. This authentication
method is available to administrators who access the firewall (but not Panorama) and end users
who access services and applications through Authentication Portal or GlobalProtect.
• Local authentication without a database—You can configure firewall administrative accounts
or Panorama administrative accounts without creating a database of users and user groups
that runs locally on the firewall or Panorama. Because this method is not associated with
authentication profiles, you cannot combine it with Kerberos SSO or MFA. However, this is
the only authentication method that allows password profiles, which enable you to associate
individual accounts with password expiration settings that differ from the global settings. (For
details, see Define password complexity and expiration settings)
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Plan Your Authentication Deployment
The following are key questions to consider before you implement an authentication solution
for administrators who access the firewall and end users who access services and applications
through Authentication Portal.
For both end users and administrators, consider:
How can you leverage your existing security infrastructure? Usually, integrating the firewall
with an existing infrastructure is faster and cheaper than setting up a new, separate solution
just for firewall services. The firewall can integrate with Multi-Factor Authentication, SAML,
Kerberos, TACACS+, RADIUS, and LDAP servers. If your users access services and applications
that are external to your network, you can use SAML to integrate the firewall with an identity
provider (IdP) that controls access to both external and internal services and applications.
How can you optimize the user experience? If you don’t want users to authenticate manually
and you have a public key infrastructure, you can implement certificate authentication.
Another option is to implement Kerberos or SAML single sign-on (SSO) so that users can
access multiple services and applications after logging in to just one. If your network requires
additional security, you can combine certificate authentication with interactive (challengeresponse) authentication.
Do you require special user accounts that you don’t manage through the directory servers that
your organization reserves for regular accounts? For example, you might define a superuser
account that is local to the firewall so that you can access the firewall even if the directory
server is down. You can configure Local Authentication for these special-purpose accounts.
External Authentication Services are usually preferable to local authentication
because they provide central account management, reliable authentication services,
and usually logging and troubleshooting features.
Are the user names for your user accounts properly formatted? Leveraging SAML, Kerberos,
TACACS+, RADIUS, and LDAP authentication requires all user names adhere to the regular
expression Linux login name rule. User names must have the format [a-zA-Z0-9_.][a-zAZ0-9_.-]{0,30}[a-zA-Z0-9_.$-].
This means that:
• The first character of the user name must be an upper or lower case alphabetical letter, a
number (0-9), or either _ (underscore) or . (period).
• Other than the first and last characters, the user name may contain upper or lower case
alphabetical characters, numbers (0-9), and _ (underscore),. (period), or - (dash). The
maximum length is 30 characters excluding the first and last characters.
• The last character of the user name may be an upper or lower case alphabetical letter, a
number (0-9), or _ (underscore), . (period), $, or - (dash).
Adhering to the regular expression Linux login name rule is required for PAN-OS administrators
only. It is not required for GlobalProtect and Captive Portal users.
For end users only, consider:
Which services and applications are more sensitive than others? For example, you might
want stronger authentication for key financial documents than for search engines. To protect
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your most sensitive services and applications, you can configure Multi-Factor Authentication
(MFA) to ensure that each user authenticates using multiple methods (factors) when accessing
those services and applications. To accommodate a variety of security needs, Configure
Authentication Policy rules that trigger MFA or single factor authentication (such as login
credentials or certificates) based on specific services, applications, and end users. Other ways
to reduce your attack surface include network segmentation and user groups for allowed
applications.
For administrators only, consider:
Do you use an external server to centrally manage authorization for all administrative
accounts? By defining Vendor-Specific Attributes (VSAs) on the external server, you can
quickly change administrative role assignments through your directory service instead of
reconfiguring settings on the firewall. VSAs also enable you to specify access domains for
administrators of firewalls with multiple virtual systems. SAML, TACACS+, and RADIUS
support external authorization.
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Configure Multi-Factor Authentication
To use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for protecting sensitive services and applications, you
must configure Authentication Portal to display a web form for the first authentication factor and
to record Authentication Timestamps. The firewall uses the timestamps to evaluate the timeouts
for Authentication Policy rules. To enable additional authentication factors, you can integrate
the firewall with MFA vendors through RADIUS or vendor APIs. After evaluating Authentication
policy, the firewall evaluates Security policy, so you must configure rules for both policy types.
Palo Alto Networks provides support for MFA vendors through Applications content
updates. This means that if you use Panorama to push device group configurations
to firewalls, you must install the same Applications updates on the firewalls as on
Panorama to avoid mismatches in vendor support.
MFA vendor API integrations are supported for end-user authentication through
Authentication Policy only. For remote user authentication to GlobalProtect portals or
gateways or for administrator authentication to the PAN-OS or Panorama web interface,
you can only use MFA vendors supported through RADIUS or SAML; MFA services
through vendor APIs are not supported in these use cases.
STEP 1 | Configure Authentication Portal in Redirect mode to display a web form for the first
authentication factor, to record authentication timestamps, and to update user mappings.
STEP 2 | Configure one of the following server profiles to define how the firewall will connect to the
service that authenticates users for the first authentication factor.
• Add a RADIUS server profile. This is required if the firewall integrates with an MFA
vendor through RADIUS. In this case, the MFA vendor provides the first and all additional
authentication factors, so you can skip the next step (configuring an MFA server profile).
If the firewall integrates with an MFA vendor through an API, you can still use a RADIUS
server profile for the first factor but MFA server profiles are required for the additional
factors.
• Add a SAML IdP server profile.
• Add a Kerberos server profile.
• Add a TACACS+ server profile.
• Add an LDAP server profile.
In most cases, an external service is recommended for the first authentication factor.
However, you can configure Configure Local Database Authentication as an
alternative.
STEP 3 | Add an MFA server profile.
The profile defines how the firewall connects to the MFA server. Add a separate profile
for each authentication factor after the first factor. The firewall integrates with these MFA
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servers through vendor APIs. You can specify up to three additional factors. Each MFA vendor
provides one factor, though some vendors let users choose one factor out of several.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > Multi Factor Authentication and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Name to identify the MFA server.
3. Select the Certificate Profile that the firewall will use to validate the MFA server
certificate when establishing a secure connection to the MFA server.
4. Select the MFA Vendor you deployed.
5. Configure the Value of each vendor attribute.
The attributes define how the firewall connects to the MFA server. Each vendor Type
requires different attributes and values; refer to your vendor documentation for details.
6. Click OK to save the profile.
STEP 4 | Configure an authentication profile.
The profile defines the order of the authentication factors that users must respond to.
1. Select Device > Authentication Profile and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Name to identify the authentication profile.
3. Select the Type for the first authentication factor and select the corresponding Server
Profile.
4. Select Factors, Enable Additional Authentication Factors, and Add the MFA server
profiles you configured.
The firewall will invoke each MFA service in the listed order, from top to bottom.
5. Click OK to save the authentication profile.
STEP 5 | Configure an authentication enforcement object.
The object associates each authentication profile with an Authentication Portal method.
The method determines whether the first authentication challenge (factor) is transparent or
requires a user response.
Select the Authentication Profile you configured and enter a Message that tells users how to
authenticate for the first factor. The message displays in the Authentication Portal web form.
If you set the Authentication Method to browser-challenge, the Authentication Portal
web form displays only if Kerberos SSO authentication fails. Otherwise, authentication
for the first factor is automatic; users won’t see the web form.
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STEP 6 | Configure an Authentication policy rule.
The rule must match the services and applications you want to protect and the users who must
authenticate.
1. Select Policies > Authentication and Add a rule.
2. Enter a Name to identify the rule.
3. Select Source and Add specific zones and IP addresses or select Any zones or IP
addresses.
The rule applies only to traffic coming from the specified IP addresses or from interfaces
in the specified zones.
4. Select User and select or Add the source users and user groups to which the rule applies
(default is any).
5. Select Destination and Add specific zones and IP addresses or select any zones or IP
addresses.
The IP addresses can be resources (such as servers) for which you want to control
access.
6. Select Service/URL Category and select or Add the services and service groups for
which the rule controls access (default is service-http).
7. Select or Add the URL Categories for which the rule controls access (default is any).
For example, you can create a custom URL category that specifies your most sensitive
internal sites.
8. Select Actions and select the Authentication Enforcement object you created.
9. Specify the Timeout period in minutes (default 60) during which the firewall prompts the
user to authenticate only once for repeated access to services and applications.
Timeout is a tradeoff between tighter security (less time between authentication
prompts) and the user experience (more time between authentication prompts).
More frequent authentication is often the right choice for access to critical
systems and sensitive areas such as a data center. Less frequent authentication
is often the right choice at the network perimeter and for businesses for which
the user experience is key.
10. Click OK to save the rule.
STEP 7 | Customize the MFA login page.
The firewall displays this page to tell users how to authenticate for MFA factors and to indicate
the authentication status (in progress, succeeded, or failed).
1. Select Device > Response Pages and select MFA Login Page.
2. Select the Predefined response page and Export the page to your client system.
3. On your client system, use an HTML editor to customize the downloaded response page
and save it with a unique filename.
4. Return to the MFA Login Page dialog on the firewall, Import your customized page,
Browse to select the Import File, select the Destination (virtual system or shared
location), click OK, and click Close.
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STEP 8 | Configure a Security policy rule that allows users to access the services and applications that
require authentication.
1. Create a Security Policy Rule.
2. Commit your changes.
The automated correlation engine on the firewall uses several correlation
objects to detect events on your network that could indicate credential abuse
relating to MFA. To review the events, select Monitor > Automated Correlation
Engine > Correlated Events.
STEP 9 | Verify that the firewall enforces MFA.
1. Log in to your network as one of the source users specified in the Authentication rule.
2. Request a service or application that matches one of the services or applications
specified in the rule.
The firewall displays the Authentication Portal web form for the first authentication
factor. The page contains the message you entered in the authentication enforcement
object. For example:
3. Enter your user credentials for the first authentication challenge.
The firewall then displays an MFA login page for the next authentication factor. For
example, the MFA service might prompt you to select the Voice, SMS, push, or PIN code
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(OTP) authentication method. If you select push, your phone prompts you to approve
the authentication.
4. Authenticate for the next factor.
The firewall displays an authentication success or failure message. If authentication
succeeded, the firewall displays an MFA login page for the next authentication factor, if
any.
Repeat this step for each MFA factor. After you authenticate for all the factors, the
firewall evaluates Security policy to determine whether to allow access to the service or
application.
5. End the session for the service or application you just accessed.
6. Start a new session for the same service or application. Be sure to perform this step
within the Timeout period you configured in the Authentication rule.
The firewall allows access without re-authenticating.
7. Wait until the Timeout period expires and request the same service or application.
The firewall prompts you to re-authenticate.
Configure MFA Between RSA SecurID and the Firewall
Multi-factor authentication allows you to protect company assets by using multiple factors to
verify a user’s identity before allowing them to access network resources. To enable multi-factor
authentication (MFA) between the firewall and the RSA SecurID Access Cloud Authentication
Service, you must first configure the RSA SecurID Service so that you have the details that
you need to configure the firewall to authenticate users using multiple factors. After you have
performed the required configuration on the RSA SecurID Access Console, you can configure the
firewall to integrate with RSA SecurID.
The Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall integrates with the RSA SecurID Access
Cloud Authentication Service. The MFA API integration with RSA SecurID is supported
for cloud-based services only and does not support two-factor authentication for the onpremise Authentication Manager when the second factor uses the Vendor Specific API.
The minimum content version required for this integration is 752 and PAN-OS 8.0.2.
• Get the RSA SecurID Access Cloud Authentication Service Details
• Configure the Firewall for MFA with RSA SecurID
Get the RSA SecurID Access Cloud Authentication Service Details
In order to securely pass user authentication requests to and from the firewall and the RSA
SecurID Access Cloud Authentication Service, you must first go to the RSA SecurID Access
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Console and configure the RSA Access ID, the authentication service URL, and the client API key
that the firewall needs to authenticate to and interact with the service. The firewall also needs the
Access Policy ID that uses either the RSA Approve or RSA Tokencode authentication method to
authenticate to the identity source.
Generate the RSA SecurID API key—Log on to RSA SecurID Access Console and select My
Account > Company Settings > Authentication API Keys. Add a new key and then Save
Settings and Publish Changes.
Get the RSA SecurID Access endpoint API (Authentication Service Domain) to which the
firewall must connect—Select Platform > Identity Routers, pick an Identity Router to Edit
and jot down the Authentication Service Domain. In this example it is https://rsaready.authdemo.auth.
Get the Access Policy ID—Select Access > Policies and jot down the name of the access policy
that will allow the firewall to act as an authentication client to the RSA SecurID service. The
policy must be configured to use either the RSA Approve or the RSA Tokencode authentication
methods only.
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Configure the Firewall for MFA with RSA SecurID
After you Get the RSA SecurID Access Cloud Authentication Service Details, you can configure
the firewall to prompt users for an RSA SecurID token when MFA is invoked.
STEP 1 | Configure the firewall to trust the SSL certificate provided by the RSA SecurID Access
endpoint API.
1. Export the SSL certificate from the RSA SecurID Access endpoint and import it into the
firewall.
To enable trust between the firewall and the RSA SecurID Access endpoint API, you
must either import a self-signed certificate, or the CA certificate used to sign the
certificate.
2. Configure a Certificate Profile (Device > Certificate Management > Certificate Profile
and click Add).
STEP 2 | Configure Authentication Portal (Device > User Identification > Authentication Portal
Settings) in Redirect mode to display a web form for authenticating to RSA SecureID. Make
sure to specify the Redirect Host as an IP address or a hostname (with no periods in its
name) that resolves to the IP address of the Layer 3 interface on the firewall to which web
requests are redirected.
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STEP 3 | Configure a multi-factor authentication server profile to specify how the firewall must
connect with the RSA SecurID cloud service (Device > Server Profiles > Multi Factor
Authentication and click Add).
1. Enter a Name to identify the MFA server profile.
2. Select the Certificate Profile that you created earlier, rsa-cert-profile in this example.
The firewall will use this certificate when establishing a secure connection with RSA
SecurID cloud service.
3. In the MFA Vendor drop-down, select RSA SecurID Access.
4. Configure the Value for each attribute that you noted in Get the RSA SecurID Access
Cloud Authentication Service Details:
• API Host—Enter the hostname or IP address of the RSA SecurID Access API endpoint
to which the firewall must connect, rsaready.auth-demo.auth in this example.
• Base URI —Do not modify the default value (/mfa/v1_1)
• Client Key—Enter the RSA SecurID Client Key.
• Access ID—Enter the RSA SecurID Access ID.
• Assurance Policy—Enter the RSA SecurID Access Policy name, mfa-policy in this
example.
• Timeout—The default is 30 seconds.
5. Save the profile.
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STEP 4 | Configure an authentication profile (Device > Authentication Profile and click Add).
The profile defines the order of the authentication factors that users must respond to.
1. Select the Type for the first authentication factor and select the corresponding Server
Profile.
2. Select Factors, Enable Additional Authentication Factors, and Add the rsa-mfa server
profile you created earlier in this example.
3. Click OK to save the authentication profile.
STEP 5 | Configure an authentication enforcement object. (Objects > Authentication and click Add).
Make sure to select the authentication profile you just defined called RSA in this example.
STEP 6 | Configure an Authentication policy rule. (Policies > Authentication and click Add)
Your authentication policy rule must match the services and applications you want to protect,
specify the users who must authenticate, and include the authentication enforcement object
that triggers the authentication profile. In this example, RSA SecurID Access authenticates all
users who accessing HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, and VNC traffic with the authentication enforcement
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object called RSA Auth Enforcement (in Actions, select the Authentication Enforcement
object).
STEP 7 | Commit your changes on the firewall.
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STEP 8 | Verify that users on your network are being secured using RSA SecurID using the Push or
PIN Code authentication method you enabled.
1. Push authentication
1. Ask a user on your network to launch a web browser and access a website. The
Authentication Portal page with the IP address or hostname for the Redirect Host you
defined earlier should display.
2. Verify that the user enters the credentials for the first authentication factor and then
continues to the secondary authentication factor, and selects Push.
3. Check for a Sign-In request on the RSA SecurID Access application on the user’s
mobile device.
4. Ask the user to Accept the Sign-In Request on the mobile device, and wait for a few
seconds for the firewall to receive the notification of successful authentication. The
user should be able to access the requested website.
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To test an authentication failure, Decline the sign-in request on the mobile
device.
2. PIN Code authentication
1. Ask a user on your network to launch a web browser and access a website. The
Authentication Portal page with the IP address or hostname for the redirect host you
defined earlier should display.
2. Verify that the user enters the credentials for the first authentication factor and then
continues to the secondary authentication factor, and selects PIN Code.
3. Check that a PIN Code displays on the RSA SecurID Access application on the user’s
mobile device.
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4. Ask the user to copy the PIN code in the Enter the PIN... prompt of the web browser
and click Submit. Wait for a few seconds for the firewall to receive the notification of
successful authentication. The user should be able to access the requested website.
Configure MFA Between Okta and the Firewall
Multi-factor authentication allows you to protect company assets by using multiple factors to
verify the identity of users before allowing them to access network resources.
To enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) between the firewall and the Okta identity
management service:
• Configure Okta
• Configure the firewall to integrate with Okta
• Verify MFA with Okta
Configure Okta
Log in to the Okta Admin Portal to create your user accounts, define your Okta MFA policy, and
obtain the token information required to configure MFA with Okta on the firewall.
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STEP 1 | Create your Okta Admin user account.
1. Submit your email address and name, then click Get Started.
2. Click the link in the confirmation email and use the included temporary password to log
in to the Okta Admin Portal.
3. Create a new password that includes at least 8 characters, one lowercase letter, one
uppercase letter, a number, and does not include any part of your username.
4. Select a password reminder question and enter the answer.
5. Select a security image, then Create My Account.
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STEP 2 | Configure your Okta service.
If you log in and are not redirected to the Okta Admin Portal, select Admin at the
upper right.
1. From the Okta Dashboard, log in with your Okta Admin credentials, then select
Applications > Applications.
2. Select Add Application.
3. Search for Okta Verify.
4. Select Add, then Done.
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STEP 3 | Create one or more user groups to categorize your users (for example, by device, by policy,
or by department) and assign the Okta Verify application.
1. Select Directory > Groups.
2. Click Add Group.
3. Enter a group Name and optionally a Group Description, then Add Group.
The default group Everyone includes all users configured for your organization
during the first step in Configure Okta.
4. Select the group you created, then select Manage Apps.
5. Assign the Okta Verify application you added in Step 2.
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6. After the application has been Assigned, click Done.
7. Repeat this process for all groups that will use the Okta Verify application for MFA.
STEP 4 | Add users and assign them to a group.
1. From the Okta Dashboard, select Directory > People > Add Person.
2. Enter the user’s First Name, Last Name, and Username. The username must match the
Primary email, which populates automatically, and the username entered on the firewall.
You can optionally enter an alternate email address for the user as the Secondary Email.
3. Enter the name of the group or Groups to associate with this user. When you start
typing, the group name populates automatically.
4. Check Send user activation email now, then Save to add a single user or Save and Add
Another to continue adding users.
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STEP 5 | Assign a test policy to users.
1. Select Security > Authentication > Sign On.
There is a Default Policy with a Default Rule that does not prompt users to log in with
MFA.
2. Enter the Rule Name and check Prompt for Factor to enforce the MFA prompt, and
select the type of prompt (Per Device, Every Time, or Per Session), then Create Rule.
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STEP 6 | Record the Okta authentication token information in a safe place because it is only displayed
once.
1. Select Security > API > Tokens.
2. Select Create Token.
3. Enter a name for the token, then Create Token.
4. Copy the Token Value.
You can click the Copy to clipboard button to copy the Token Value to your clipboard.
5. In the URL for the Okta Admin Dashboard, copy the portion of the URL after https://
up to /admin to use as the API host.
6. Omit the domain okta.com from this URL to use as the Organization.
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For example, in the example Okta Admin Dashboard URL above, https://
paloaltonetworks-doc-admin.okta.com/admin/dashboard:
• The API hostname is paloaltonetworks-doc-admin.okta.com.
• The Organization is paloaltonetworks-doc-admin.
STEP 7 | Export all certificates in the certificate chain using Base-64 encoding:
1. Depending on your browser, use one of the following methods to export all certificates
in the chain.
• Chrome—Press F12, then select Security > View Certificate > Details > Copy to File.
• Firefox—Select Options > Privacy & Security > View Certificates > Export.
• Internet Explorer—Select Settings > Internet Options > Content > Certificates >
Export.
2. Use the Certificate Export Wizard to export all certificates in the chain and select
Base-64 encoded X.509 as the format.
Configure the firewall to integrate with Okta
As a prerequisite, confirm that you have mapped all users that you want to authenticate using
Okta.
STEP 1 | Import all certificates in the certificate chain on the firewall and add the imported CA
certificates (root and intermediate) to a Certificate Profile.
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STEP 2 | Add a Multi Factor Authentication Server Profile for Okta.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > Multi Factor Authentication.
2. Add an MFA server profile.
3. Enter a Profile Name.
4. Select the Certificate Profile you created in Step 1 in Configure the firewall to integrate
with Okta.
5. Select Okta Adaptive as the MFA Vendor.
6. Enter the API Host, Token, and Organization from Step 4 in Configure the firewall to
integrate with Okta.
STEP 3 | Configure Authentication Portal using Redirect Mode to redirect users to the MFA vendor’s
challenge.
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STEP 4 | Enable response pages on the Interface Management Profile to redirect users to the
response page challenge.
STEP 5 | Create an Authentication Profile and add the MFA vendor as a Factor (see Configure MultiFactor Authentication, Step 3.)
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STEP 6 | Enable User-ID on the source zone to require identified users to respond to the challenge
using your MFA vendor.
STEP 7 | Create an Authentication Enforcement Object to use the MFA vendor and create an
Authentication policy rule (see Configure Authentication Policy, Steps 4 and 5).
STEP 8 | Commit your changes.
Verify MFA with Okta
STEP 1 | Verify your users received their enrollment emails, have activated their accounts, and have
downloaded the Okta Verify app on their devices.
STEP 2 | Go to a website that will prompt the response page challenge.
If you are using a self-signed certificate instead of a PKI-assigned certificate from your
organization, a security warning displays that users must click through to access the
challenge.
STEP 3 | Log in to the response page using your Okta credentials.
STEP 4 | Confirm the device receives the challenge push notification.
STEP 5 | Confirm users can successfully access the page after authenticating the challenge by
accepting the push notification on their devices.
Configure MFA Between Duo and the Firewall
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) allows you to protect company assets by using multiple factors
to verify the identity of users before allowing them to access network resources. There are
multiple ways to use the Duo identity management service to authenticate with the firewall:
• Two-factor authentication for VPN logins using the GlobalProtect Gateway and a RADIUS
server profile (supported on PAN-OS 7.0 and later).
• API-based integration using Authentication Portal and an MFA server profile (does not require
a Duo Authentication Proxy or SAML IdP - supported on PAN-OS 8.0 and later).
• SAML integration for on-premise servers (supported on PAN-OS 8.0 and later).
To enable SAML MFA between the firewall and Duo to secure administrative access to the
firewall:
• Configure Duo for SAML MFA with Duo Access Gateway
• Configure the Firewall to Integrate with Duo
• Verify MFA with Duo
Configure Duo for SAML MFA with Duo Access Gateway
Before you begin, verify that you have deployed the DuoAccessGateway (DAG) on an on-premise
server in your DMZ zone.
Create your Duo administrator account and configure the Duo Access Gateway to authenticate
your users before they can access resources.
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STEP 1 | Create your Duo administrator account.
1. On the Duo account creation page, enter your First Name, Last Name, Email Address,
Cell Phone Number, Company / Account Name, and select the number of employees in
the organization.
2. Agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and respond to the reCAPTCHA challenge to
Create My Account.
STEP 2 | Verify your Duo administrator account.
1. Select the authentication verification method (Duo Push, Text Me, or Calling...).
2. Enter the Passcode you receive and Submit it to verify your account.
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STEP 3 | Configure your Duo service for SAML.
After creating your configuration, download the configuration file at the top of the page.
1. In the Duo Admin Panel, select Applications > Protect an Application.
2. Enter Palo Alto Networks to search the applications.
3. Locate SAML - Palo Alto Networks in the list of results, then Protect this Application.
4. Enter the Domain.
5. Select Admin UI as the Palo Alto Networks Service.
6. Configure your Policy and other Settings, and Save Configuration.
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7. Download your configuration file.
The link to download the file is at the top of the page.
STEP 4 | Upload the configuration file to the Duo Access Gateway (DAG).
1. In the DAG admin console, select Applications.
2. Click Choose File and select the configuration file you downloaded, then Upload it.
3. In Settings > Session Management, disable User agent binding, then Save Settings.
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STEP 5 | In the DAG admin console, configure your Active Directory or OpenLDAP server as the
authentication source and download the metadata file.
1. Log in to the DAG admin console.
2. In Authentication Source > Set Active Source, select your Source type (Active Directory
or OpenLDAP) and Set Active Source.
3. In Configure Sources, enter the Attributes.
• For Active Directory, enter
mail,sAMAccountName,userPrincipalName,objectGUID.
• For OpenLDAP, enter mail,uid.
• For any custom attributes, append them to the end of the list and separate each
attribute with a comma. Do not delete any existing attributes.
4. Save Settings to save the configuration.
5. Select Applications > Metadata, then click Download XML metadata to download the
XML metadata you will need to import into the firewall.
The file will be named dag.xml. Because this file includes sensitive information to
authenticate your Duo account with the firewall, make sure to keep the file in a secure
location to avoid the risk of compromising this information.
Configure the Firewall to Integrate with Duo
STEP 1 | Import the Duo metadata.
1. Log on to the firewall web interface.
2. On the firewall, select Device > Server Profiles > SAML Identity Provider > Import.
3. Enter the Profile Name.
4. Browse to the Identity Provider Metadata file (dag.xml).
5. If the Duo Access Gateway provides a self-signed certificate as the signing certificate for
the IdP, you cannot Validate Identity Provider Certificate. In this case, ensure that you
are using PAN-OS 10.2 to mitigate exposure to CVE-2020-2021.
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STEP 2 | Add an authentication profile.
The authentication profile allows Duo as the identity provider that validates administrator login
credentials.
1. Add an Authentication Profile.
2. Enter the profile Name.
3. Select SAML as the authentication Type.
4. Select Duo Access Gateway Profile as the IdP Server Profile.
5. Select the certificate you want to use for SAML communication with the Duo Access
Gateway for the Certificate for Signing Requests.
6. Enter duo_username as the Username Attribute.
7. Select Advanced to Add an allow list.
8. Select all, then click OK.
9. Commit the changes.
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STEP 3 | Specify the authentication settings that the firewall uses for SAML authentication with Duo.
1. Select Device > Setup > Management and edit the Authentication Settings.
2. Select Duo Access Gateway as the Authentication Profile, then click OK.
3. Commit your changes.
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STEP 4 | Add accounts for administrators who will authenticate to the firewall using Duo.
1. Select Device > Administrators and Add an account.
2. Enter a user Name.
3. Select Duo Access Gateway as the Authentication Profile.
4. Select the Administrator Type, then click OK.
Select Role Based if you want to use a custom role for the user. Otherwise, select
Dynamic. To require administrators to log in using SSO with Duo, assign the
authentication profile to all current administrators.
Verify MFA with Duo
STEP 1 | Log in to the web interface on the firewall.
STEP 2 | Select Use Single Sign-On and Continue.
STEP 3 | Enter your login credentials on the Duo Access Gateway login page.
STEP 4 | Select an authentication method (push notification, phone call, or passcode entry).
When you authenticate successfully, you will be redirected to the firewall web interface.
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Pre-Logon for SAML Authentication
Where Can I Use This? What Do I Need?
• GlobalProtect Subscription GlobalProtect App 5.0 with PAN-OS 8.0
and later releases
macOS 10.9 and later releases
Windows 7 and 10
GlobalProtect endpoints running on
Windows and macOS
Pre-logon is a connect method that establishes a VPN tunnel before a user logs in. The
GlobalProtect app for Windows and Mac endpoints now supports pre-logon followed by SAML
authentication for user login. When an endpoint boots up and Internet is readily available,
GlobalProtect establishes a pre-logon tunnel using the machine certificate on the endpoint.
After the pre-logon tunnel is established, the user can log in to the endpoint and authenticate
to GlobalProtect using the configured SAML identity provider (IDP). If SAML authentication is
successful on Windows endpoints, the pre-logon tunnel is seamlessly renamed to User tunnel,
and the GlobalProtect connection is established. If SAML authentication is successful on Mac
endpoints, a new tunnel is created, and the GlobalProtect connection is established.
A pre-logon VPN tunnel has no username association because the user has not logged in. In order
to grant access to resources, it is necessary to establish security policies that are compatible with
the pre-logon user. These policies should permit access to essential services required for system
startup, such as DHCP, DNS, specific Active Directory services, antivirus, and operating system
update services. After the user authenticates to the gateway, the GlobalProtect app reassigns
the VPN tunnel to the authenticated user, resulting in a change in the IP address mapping on the
firewall from the pre-logon endpoint to the authenticated user.
Use the following steps to configure the GlobalProtect app to use pre-logon followed by SAML
authentication for user login:
1. Remote Access VPN with Pre-Logon
2. Set Up SAML Authentication
After you configure pre-logon for SAML authentication, you're ready to Configure SAML
Authentication.
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Configure SAML Authentication
To configure SAML single sign-on (SSO) and single logout (SLO), you must register the firewall and
the IdP with each other to enable communication between them. If the IdP provides a metadata
file containing registration information, you can import it onto the firewall to register the IdP and
to create an IdP server profile. The server profile defines how to connect to the IdP and specifies
the certificate that the IdP uses to sign SAML messages. You can also use a certificate for the
firewall to sign SAML messages. Using certificates is a requirement to secure communications
between the firewall and the IdP.
Palo Alto Networks requires HTTPS to ensure the confidentiality of all SAML transactions instead
of alternative approaches such as encrypted SAML assertions. To ensure the integrity of all
messages processed in a SAML transaction, Palo Alto Networks requires digital certificates to
cryptographically sign all messages.
The following procedure describes how to configure SAML authentication for end users and
firewall administrators. You can also configure SAML authentication for Panorama administrators.
SSO is available to administrators and to GlobalProtect and Authentication Portal
end users. SLO is available to administrators and GlobalProtect end users, but not to
Authentication Portal end users.
Administrators can use SAML to authenticate to the firewall web interface, but not to the
CLI.
STEP 1 | Obtain the certificates that the IdP and firewall will use to sign SAML messages.
If the certificates don’t specify key usage attributes, all usages are allowed by default, including
signing messages. In this case, you can Obtain Certificates by any method.
If the certificates do specify key usage attributes, one of the attributes must be Digital
Signature, which is not available on certificates that you generate on the firewall or Panorama.
In this case, you must import the certificates:
• Certificate the firewall uses to sign SAML messages—Import the certificate from your
enterprise certificate authority (CA) or a third-party CA.
• Certificate the IdP uses to sign SAML messages (Required for all deployments)—Import a
metadata file containing the certificate from the IdP (see the next step). The IdP certificate
is limited to the following algorithms:
Public key algorithms—RSA (1,024 bits or larger) and ECDSA (all sizes). A firewall in FIPS/
CC mode supports RSA (2,048 bits or larger) and ECDSA (all sizes).
Signature algorithms—SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512. A firewall in FIPS/CC mode
supports SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512.
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STEP 2 | Add a SAML IdP server profile.
The server profile registers the IdP with the firewall and defines how they connect.
In this example, you import a SAML metadata file from the IdP so that the firewall can
automatically create a server profile and populate the connection, registration, and IdP
certificate information.
If the IdP doesn’t provide a metadata file, select Device > Server Profiles > SAML
Identity Provider, Add the server profile, and manually enter the information (consult
your IdP administrator for the values).
1. Export the SAML metadata file from the IdP to a client system from which you can
upload the metadata to the firewall.
The certificate specified in the file must meet the requirements listed in the preceding
step. Refer to your IdP documentation for instructions on exporting the file.
2. Select Device > Server Profiles > SAML Identity Provider or Panorama > Server Profiles
> SAML Identity Provider on Panorama™ and Import the metadata file onto the firewall.
3. Enter a Profile Name to identify the server profile.
4. Browse to the Identity Provider Metadata file.
5. Select Validate Identity Provider Certificate (default) to validate the chain of trust and
optionally the revocation status of the IdP certificate.
To enable this option, a Certificate Authority (CA) must issue your IdP’s signing
certificate. You must create a Certificate Profile that has the CA that issued the IdP’s
signing certificate. In the Authentication Profile, select the SAML Server profile and
Certificate Profile to validate the IdP certificate.
If your IdP signing certificate is a self-signed certificate, there is no chain of trust; as
a result, you cannot enable this option. The firewall always validates the signature of
the SAML Responses or Assertions against the Identity Provider certificate that you
configure whether or not you enable the Validate Identity Provider Certificate option.
If your IdP provides a self-signed certificate, ensure that you are using PAN-OS 10.2 to
mitigate exposure to CVE-2020-2021.
Validate the certificate to ensure it hasn’t been compromised and to improve
security.
6. Enter the Maximum Clock Skew, which is the allowed difference in seconds between
the system times of the IdP and the firewall at the moment when the firewall validates
IdP messages (default is 60; range is 1 to 900). If the difference exceeds this value,
authentication fails.
7. Click OK to save the server profile.
8. Click the server profile Name to display the profile settings. Verify that the imported
information is correct and edit it if necessary.
9. Whether you import the IdP metadata or manually enter the IdP information, always
ensure that the signing certificate of your SAML identity provider is the Identity
Provider Certificate for your server profile and your IdP sends signed SAML Responses,
Assertions, or both.
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STEP 3 | Configure an authentication profile.
The profile defines authentication settings that are common to a set of users.
1. Select Device > Authentication Profile and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Name to identify the profile.
3. Set the Type to SAML.
4. Select the IdP Server Profile you configured.
5. Select the Certificate for Signing Requests.
The firewall uses this certificate to sign messages it sends to the IdP. You can import a
certificate generated by your enterprise CA or you can generate a certificate using the
root CA that was generated on the firewall or Panorama.
6. (Optional) Enable Single Logout (disabled by default).
7. Select the Certificate Profile that the firewall will use to validate the Identity Provider
Certificate.
8. Enter the Username Attribute that IdP messages use to identify users (default
username).
When you predefine dynamic administrator roles for users, use lower-case to
specify the role (for example, enter superreader, not SuperReader). If you
manage administrator authorization in the IdP identity store, specify the Admin
Role Attribute and Access Domain Attribute also.
9. Select Advanced and Add the users and user groups that are allowed to authenticate
with this authentication profile.
10. Click OK to save the authentication profile.
STEP 4 | Assign the authentication profile to firewall applications that require authentication.
1. Assign the authentication profile to:
• Administrator accounts that you manage locally on the firewall. In this example,
Configure a Firewall Administrator Account before you verify the SAML configuration
later in this procedure.
• Administrator accounts that you manage externally in the IdP identity store. Select
Device > Setup > Management, edit the Authentication Settings, and select the
Authentication Profile you configured.
• Authentication policy rules that secure the services and applications that end users
access through Authentication Portal. See Configure Authentication Policy.
• GlobalProtect portals and gateways that end users access.
2. Commit your changes.
The firewall validates the Identity Provider Certificate that you assigned to the SAML
IdP server profile.
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STEP 5 | Create a SAML metadata file to register the firewall application (management access,
Authentication Portal, or GlobalProtect) on the IdP.
1. Select Device > Authentication Profile and, in the Authentication column for the
authentication profile you configured, click Metadata.
2. In the Service drop-down, select the application you want to register:
• management (default)—Administrative access to the web interface.
• authentication-portal—End user access to services and applications through
Authentication Portal.
• global-protect—End user access to services and applications through GlobalProtect.
3. (Authentication Portal or GlobalProtect only) for the Vsysname Combo, select the virtual
system in which the Authentication Portal settings or GlobalProtect portal are defined.
4. Enter the interface, IP address, or hostname based on the application you will register:
• management—For the Management Choice, select Interface (default) and select an
interface that is enabled for management access to the web interface. The default
selection is the IP address of the MGT interface.
• authentication-portal—For the IP Hostname, enter the IP address or hostname of the
Redirect Host (see Device > User Identification > Authentication Portal Settings).
• global-protect—For the IP Hostname, enter the hostname or IP address of the
GlobalProtect portal or gateway.
5. Click OK and save the metadata file to your client system.
6. Import the metadata file into the IdP server to register the firewall application. Refer to
your IdP documentation for instructions.
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STEP 6 | Verify that users can authenticate using SAML SSO.
For example, to verify that SAML is working for access to the web interface using a local
administrator account:
1. Go to the URL of the firewall web interface.
2. Click Use Single Sign-On.
3. Enter the username of the administrator.
4. Click Continue.
The firewall redirects you to authenticate to the IdP, which displays a login page. For
example:
5. Log in using your SSO username and password.
After you successfully authenticate on the IdP, it redirects you back to the firewall,
which displays the web interface.
6. Use your firewall administrator account to request access to another SSO application.
Successful access indicates SAML SSO authentication succeeded.
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Configure Kerberos Single Sign-On
Palo Alto Networks firewalls and Panorama support Kerberos V5 single sign-on (SSO) to
authenticate administrators to the web interface and end users to Authentication Portal. With
Kerberos SSO enabled, the user needs to log in only for initial access to your network (such as
logging in to Microsoft Windows). After this initial login, the user can access any browser-based
service in the network (such as the firewall web interface) without having to log in again until the
SSO session expires.
STEP 1 | Create a Kerberos keytab.
The keytab is a file that contains the principal name and password of the firewall, and is
required for the SSO process. When you configure Kerberos in your Authentication Profile and
Sequence, the firewall first checks for a Kerberos SSO hostname. If you provide a hostname,
the firewall searches the keytabs for a service principal name that matches the hostname
and uses only that keytab for decryption. If you do not provide a hostname, the firewall tries
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each keytab in the authentication sequence until it is able to successfully authenticate using
Kerberos.
If the Kerberos SSO hostname is included in the request sent to the firewall, then
the hostname must match the service principal name of the keytab; otherwise, the
Kerberos authentication request is not sent.
1. Log in to the Active Directory server and open a command prompt.
2. Enter the following command to register the service principal name (SPN)
for GlobalProtect or Authentication Portal, where <portal_fqdn> and
<service_account_username> are variables.
setspn -s HTTP/<portal_fqdn> <service_account_username>
3. Create Kerberos account for the firewall. Refer to your Kerberos documentation for the
steps.
4. Log in to the KDC and open a command prompt.
5. Enter the following command, where <portal_fqdn>, <kerberos_realm>, <netbios_name>,
<service_account_username>, <password>, <filename>, and <algorithm> are variables.
ktpass /princ HTTP <portal_fqdn>@<kerberos_realm> /mapuser
<netbios_name>\<service_account_username> /pass <password>/out
<filename>.keytab /ptype KRB5_NT_PRINCIPAL /crypto <algorithm>
The <kerberos_realm> value must be in all uppercase characters (for example,
enter AD1.EXAMPLE.COM, not ad1.example.com).
If the firewall is in FIPS/CC mode, the algorithm must be aes128-cts-hmacsha1-96 or aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96. Otherwise, you can also use
des3-cbc-sha1 or arcfour-hmac. To use an Advanced Encryption
Standard (AES) algorithm, the functional level of the KDC must be Windows
Server 2012 or later and you must enable AES encryption for the firewall
account.
The algorithm in the keytab must match the algorithm in the service ticket
that the TGS issues to clients. Your Kerberos administrator determines which
algorithms the service tickets use.
STEP 2 | Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence to define Kerberos settings and other
authentication options that are common to a set of users.
• Enter the Kerberos Realm (usually the DNS domain of the users, except that the realm is
uppercase).
• Import the Kerberos Keytab that you created for the firewall.
STEP 3 | Assign the authentication profile to the firewall application that requires authentication.
• Administrative access to the web interface—Configure a Firewall Administrator Account and
assign the authentication profile you configured.
• End user access to services and applications—Assign the authentication profile you
configured to an authentication enforcement object. When configuring the object, set
the Authentication Method to browser-challenge. Assign the object to Authentication
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policy rules. For the full procedure to configure authentication for end users, see Configure
Authentication Policy.
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Configure Kerberos Server Authentication
You can use Kerberos to natively authenticate end users and firewall or Panorama administrators
to an Active Directory domain controller or a Kerberos V5-compliant authentication server. This
authentication method is interactive, requiring users to enter usernames and passwords.
To use a Kerberos server for authentication, the server must be accessible over an IPv4
address. IPv6 addresses are not supported.
STEP 1 | Add a Kerberos server profile.
The profile defines how the firewall connects to the Kerberos server.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > Kerberos or Panorama > Server Profiles > Kerberos on
Panorama™ and Add a server profile.
2. Enter a Profile Name to identify the server profile.
3. Add each server and specify a Name (to identify the server), IPv4 address or FQDN
of the Kerberos Server, and optional Port number for communication with the server
(default 88).
If you use an FQDN address object to identify the server and you subsequently
change the address, you must commit the change in order for the new server
address to take effect.
4. Click OK to save your changes to the profile.
STEP 2 | Assign the server profile to an Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence.
The authentication profile defines authentication settings that are common to a set of users.
STEP 3 | Assign the authentication profile to the firewall application that requires authentication.
• Administrative access to the web interface—Configure a Firewall Administrator Account and
assign the authentication profile you configured.
• End user access to services and applications—Assign the authentication profile you
configured to an authentication enforcement object and assign the object to Authentication
policy rules. For the full procedure to configure authentication for end users, see Configure
Authentication Policy.
STEP 4 | Verify that the firewall can Test Authentication Server Connectivity to authenticate users.
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Configure TACACS+ Authentication
You can configure TACACS+ authentication for end users as well as firewall or Panorama™
administrators. You can also use a TACACS+ server to manage administrator authorization (role
and access domain assignments) by defining Vendor-Specific Attributes (VSAs). For all users, you
must configure a TACACS+ server profile that defines how the firewall or Panorama connects
to the server. You then assign the server profile to an authentication profile for each set of
users who require common authentication settings. What you do with the authentication profile
depends on which users the TACACS+ server authenticates:
• End users—Assign the authentication profile to an authentication enforcement object
and assign the object to Authentication policy rules. For the full procedure, see Configure
Authentication Policy.
• Administrative accounts with authorization managed locally on the firewall or Panorama—
Assign the authentication profile to firewall administrator or Panorama administrator accounts.
• Administrative accounts with authorization managed on the TACACS+ server—The following
procedure describes how to configure TACACS+ authentication and authorization for firewall
administrators. For Panorama administrators, refer to Configure TACACS+ Authentication for
PanoramaAdministrators.
STEP 1 | Add a TACACS+ server profile.
The profile defines how the firewall connects to the TACACS+ server.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > TACACS+ or Panorama > Server Profiles > TACACS+
on Panorama and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Profile Name to identify the server profile.
3. (Optional) Select Administrator Use Only to restrict access to administrators.
4. Enter a Timeout interval in seconds after which an authentication request times out
(default is 3; range is 1–20).
5. Select the Authentication Protocol (default is CHAP) that the firewall uses to
authenticate to the TACACS+ server.
Select CHAP if the TACACS+ server supports that protocol; it's more secure
than PAP.
6. Add each TACACS+ server and enter the following:
• A Name to identify the server.
• The TACACS+ Server IP address or FQDN. If you use an FQDN address object to
identify the server and you subsequently change the address, you must commit the
change for the new server address to take effect.
• A Secret and Confirm Secret to encrypt usernames and passwords.
• The server Port for authentication requests (default is 49).
7. Click OK to save the server profile.
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STEP 2 | Assign the TACACS+ server profile to an authentication profile.
The authentication profile defines the authentication settings that are common to a set of
users.
1. Select Device > Authentication Profile and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Name to identify the profile.
3. Set the Type to TACACS+.
4. Select the Server Profile you configured.
5. Select Retrieve user group from TACACS+ to collect user group information from VSAs
defined on the TACACS+ server.
The firewall matches the group information using the groups you specify in the Allow
List of the authentication profile.
6. Select Advanced and in the Allow List, Add the users and groups that can authenticate
with this authentication profile.
7. Click OK to save the authentication profile.
STEP 3 | Configure the firewall to use the authentication profile for all administrators.
1. Select Device > Setup > Management and edit the Authentication Settings.
2. Select the Authentication Profile you configured and click OK.
STEP 4 | Configure the roles and access domains that define authorization settings for administrators.
If you already defined TACACS+ VSAs on the TACACS+ server, the names you specify for
roles and access domains on the firewall must match the VSA values.
1. Configure an Admin Role Profile if the administrator will use a custom role instead of a
predefined (dynamic) role.
2. If the firewall has more than one virtual system, configure an access domain by selecting
Device > Access Domain. Add an access domain, enter a Name to identify the access
domain, and Add each virtual system that the administrator will access, and then click
OK.
STEP 5 | Commit your changes to activate them on the firewall.
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STEP 6 | Configure the TACACS+ server to authenticate and authorize administrators.
Refer to your TACACS+ server documentation for the specific instructions to perform these
steps:
1. Add the firewall IP address or hostname as the TACACS+ client.
2. Add the administrator accounts.
If you selected CHAP as the Authentication Protocol, you must define accounts
with reversibly encrypted passwords. Otherwise, CHAP authentication will
fail.
3. Define TACACS+ VSAs for the role, access domain, and user group of each
administrator.
When you predefine dynamic administrator roles for users, use lower-case to
specify the role (for example, enter superuser, not SuperUser).
STEP 7 | Verify that the TACACS+ server performs authentication and authorization for
administrators.
1. Log in the firewall web interface using an administrator account that you added to the
TACACS+ server.
2. Verify that you can access only the web interface pages that are allowed for the role you
associated with the administrator.
3. In the Monitor, Policies, and Objects tabs, verify that you can access only the virtual
systems that are allowed for the access domain you associated with the administrator.
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Configure RADIUS Authentication
You can configure RADIUS authentication for end users and firewall or Panorama administrators.
For administrators, you can use RADIUS to manage authorization (role and access domain
assignments) by defining Vendor-Specific Attributes (VSAs). You can also use RADIUS to
implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for administrators and end users. To enable
RADIUS authentication, you must configure a RADIUS server profile that defines how the firewall
or Panorama connects to the server (see Step 1 below). You then assign the server profile to an
authentication profile for each set of users who require common authentication settings (see Step
5 below). What you do with the authentication profile depends on which users the RADIUS server
authenticates:
• End users—Assign the authentication profile to an authentication enforcement object
and assign the object to Authentication policy rules. For the full procedure, see Configure
Authentication Policy.
You can also configure client systems to send RADIUS Vendor-Specific Attributes (VSAs)
to the RADIUS server by assigning the authentication profile to a GlobalProtect portal or
gateway. RADIUS administrators can then perform administrative tasks based on those
VSAs.
• Administrative accounts with authorization managed locally on the firewall or Panorama—
Assign the authentication profile to firewall administrator or Panorama administrator accounts.
• Administrative accounts with authorization managed on the RADIUS server—The following
procedure describes how to configure RADIUS authentication and authorization for firewall
administrators. For Panorama administrators, refer to Configure RADIUS Authentication for
PanoramaAdministrators.
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STEP 1 | Add a RADIUS server profile.
The profile defines how the firewall connects to the RADIUS server.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > RADIUS or Panorama > Server Profiles > RADIUS on
Panorama™and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Profile Name to identify the server profile.
3. (Optional) Select Administrator Use Only to restrict access to administrators.
4. Enter a Timeout interval in seconds after which an authentication request times out
(default is 3; range is 1–120).
If you use the server profile to integrate the firewall with an MFA service, enter
an interval that gives users enough time to authenticate. For example, if the
MFA service prompts for a one-time password (OTP), users need time to see the
OTP on their endpoint device and then enter the OTP in the MFA login page.
5. Enter the number of Retries.
6. Select the Authentication Protocol (default is PEAP-MSCHAPv2) that the firewall uses
to authenticate to the RADIUS server.
Depending on which factors you want to use to authenticate users within your multifactor authentication (MFA) environment, select the appropriate authentication protocol:
• Username, password, and push (an automatically triggered out-of-band request):
Supported with all authentication protocols
• Push, password, token, and PIN (when password or token or PIN are provided
together): Supported with PAP, PEAP with GTC, and EAP-TTLS with PAP
• Username, password, token, and PIN, and challenge-response (when password or
token or PIN are provided together): Supported with PAP and PEAP with GTC
If you select an EAP authentication method (PEAP-MSCHAPv2, PEAP with GTC, or
EAP-TTLS with PAP), confirm that your RADIUS server supports Transport Layer
Security (TLS) 1.1 or higher and that the root and intermediate certificate authorities
(CAs) for your RADIUS server are included in the certificate profile associated with the
RADIUS server profile. If you select an EAP method and you do not associate a correctly
configured certificate profile with the RADIUS profile, authentication fails.
7. Add each RADIUS server and enter the following:
• Name to identify the server
• RADIUS Server IP address or FQDN. If you use an FQDN to identify the server and
you subsequently change the address, you must commit the change for the new
server address to take effect.
• Secret/Confirm Secret is a key to encrypt passwords and can be up to 64 characters
in length.
• Server Port for authentication requests (default is 1812)
8. Click OK to save the server profile.
For redundancy, add multiple RADIUS servers in the sequence you want the firewall to use.
If you have selected an EAP method, configure an authentication sequence to ensure that
users will be able to successfully respond to the authentication challenge. There is no alternate
authentication method with EAP: if the user fails the authentication challenge and you have
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not configured an authentication sequence that allows another authentication method,
authentication fails.
STEP 2 | If you are using PEAP-MSCHAPv2 with GlobalProtect, select Allow users to change
passwords after expiry to allow GlobalProtect users to changed expired passwords to log in.
STEP 3 | (PEAP-MSCHAPv2, PEAP with GTC, or EAP-TTLS with PAP only) To anonymize the user’s
identity in the outer tunnel that is created after authenticating with the server, select Make
Outer Identity Anonymous.
You must configure the RADIUS server so that the entire chain allows access for
anonymous users. Some RADIUS server configurations may not support anonymous
outer IDs, and you may need to clear the option. When cleared, the RADIUS server
transmits usernames in cleartext.
STEP 4 | If you select an EAP authentication method, select a Certificate Profile.
STEP 5 | Assign the RADIUS server profile to an authentication profile.
The authentication profile defines authentication settings that are common to a set of users.
1. Select Device > Authentication Profile and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Name to identify the authentication profile.
3. Set the Type to RADIUS.
4. Select the Server Profile you configured.
5. Select Retrieve user group from RADIUS to collect user group information from VSAs
defined on the RADIUS server.
The firewall matches the group information against the groups you specify in the Allow
List of the authentication profile.
6. Select Advanced and, in the Allow List, Add the users and groups that are allowed to
authenticate with this authentication profile.
7. Click OK to save the authentication profile.
STEP 6 | Configure the firewall to use the authentication profile for all administrators.
1. Select Device > Setup > Management and edit the Authentication Settings.
2. Select the Authentication Profile you configured and click OK.
STEP 7 | Configure the roles and access domains that define authorization settings for administrators.
If you already defined RADIUS VSAs on the RADIUS server, the names you specify for roles
and access domains on the firewall must match the VSA values.
1. Configure an Admin Role Profile if the administrator uses a custom role instead of a
predefined (dynamic) role.
2. Configure an access domain if the firewall has more than one virtual system:
1. Select Device > Access Domain, Add an access domain, and enter a Name to identify
the access domain.
2. Add each virtual system that the administrator will access, and then click OK.
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STEP 8 | Commit your changes to activate them on the firewall.
STEP 9 | Configure the RADIUS server to authenticate and authorize administrators.
Refer to your RADIUS server documentation for the specific instructions to perform these
steps:
1. Add the firewall IP address or hostname as the RADIUS client.
2. Add the administrator accounts.
If the RADIUS server profile specifies CHAP as the Authentication Protocol, you
must define accounts with reversibly encrypted passwords. Otherwise, CHAP
authentication will fail.
3. Define the vendor code for the firewall (25461) and define the RADIUS VSAs for the
role, access domain, and user group of each administrator.
When you predefine dynamic administrator roles for users, use lower-case to specify the
role (for example, enter superuser, not SuperUser).
When configuring the advanced vendor options on the ACS, you must set both
the Vendor Length Field Size and Vendor Type Field Size to 1. Otherwise,
authentication will fail.
4. If you have selected an EAP method, the firewall validates the server but not the client.
To ensure client validity, restrict clients by IP address or subdomain.
STEP 10 | Verify that the RADIUS server performs authentication and authorization for administrators.
1. Log in the firewall web interface using an administrator account that you added to the
RADIUS server.
2. Verify that you can access only the web interface pages that are allowed for the role you
associated with the administrator.
3. In the Monitor, Policies, and Objects tabs, verify that you can access only the virtual
systems that are allowed for the access domain you associated with the administrator.
4. In Monitor > Authentication, verify the Authentication Protocol.
5. Test the connection and the validity of the certificate profile using the following CLI
command:
admin@PA-220 > test authentication authentication-profile
auth-profile username <username> password <password>
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286 | Authentication
Configure LDAP Authentication
You can use LDAP to authenticate end users who access applications or services through
Authentication Portal and authenticate firewall or Panorama administrators who access the web
interface.
You can also connect to an LDAP server to define policy rules based on user groups. For
details, see Map Users to Groups.
STEP 1 | Add an LDAP server profile.
The profile defines how the firewall connects to the LDAP server.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > LDAP or Panorama > Server Profiles > LDAP on
Panorama™ and Add a server profile.
2. Enter a Profile Name to identify the server profile.
3. (Multi-vsys only) Select the Location in which the profile is available.
4. (Optional) Select Administrator Use Only to restrict access to administrators.
5. Add the LDAP servers (up to four). For each server, enter a Name (to identify the server),
LDAP Server IP address or FQDN, and server Port (default 389).
If you use an FQDN address object to identify the server and you subsequently
change the address, you must commit the change for the new server address to
take effect.
6. Select the server Type.
7. Select the Base DN.
To identify the Base DN of your directory, open the Active Directory Domains and
Trusts Microsoft Management Console snap-in and use the name of the top-level
domain.
8. Enter the Bind DN and Password to enable the authentication service to authenticate
the firewall.
The Bind DN account must have permission to read the LDAP directory.
9. Enter the Bind Timeout and Search Timeout in seconds (default is 30 for both).
10. Enter the Retry Interval in seconds (default is 60).
11. Enable the option to Require SSL/TLS secured connection (enabled by default). The
protocol that the endpoint uses depends on the server port:
• 389 (default)—TLS (Specifically, the device uses the StartTLS operation, which
upgrades the initial plaintext connection to TLS.)
• 636—SSL
• Any other port—The device first attempts to use TLS. If the directory server doesn’t
support TLS, the device falls back to SSL.
12. (Optional) For additional security, enable to the option to Verify Server Certificate
for SSL sessions so that the endpoint verifies the certificate that the directory server
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287 | Authentication
presents for SSL/TLS connections. To enable verification, you must also enable the
option to Require SSL/TLS secured connection. For verification to succeed, the
certificate must meet one of the following conditions:
• It is in the list of device certificates: Device > Certificate Management > Certificates
> Device Certificates. If necessary, import the certificate into the device.
• The certificate signer is in the list of trusted certificate authorities: Device >
Certificate Management > Certificates > Default Trusted Certificate Authorities.
13. Click OK to save the server profile.
STEP 2 | Assign the server profile to Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence to define
various authentication settings.
STEP 3 | Assign the authentication profile to the firewall application that requires authentication.
• Administrative access to the web interface—Configure a Firewall Administrator Account
and assign the authentication profile you configured.
• End user access to services and applications—For the full procedure to configure
authentication for end users, see Configure Authentication Policy.
STEP 4 | Verify that the firewall can Test Authentication Server Connectivity to authenticate users.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 288 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
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Connection Timeouts for Authentication Servers
You can configure the firewall to use External Authentication Services for authenticating
administrators who access the firewall or Panorama and end users who access services or
applications through Authentication Portal. To ensure that the firewall does not waste resources
by continuously trying to reach an authentication server that is unreachable, you can set a timeout
interval after which the firewall stops trying to connect. You set the timeout in the server profiles
that define how the firewall connects to the authentication servers. When choosing timeout
values, your goal is to strike a balance between the need to conserve firewall resources and to
account for normal network delays that affect how quickly authentication servers respond to the
firewall.
• Guidelines for Setting Authentication Server Timeouts
• Modify the PAN-OS Web Server Timeout
• Modify the Authentication Portal Session Timeout
Guidelines for Setting Authentication Server Timeouts
The following are some guidelines for setting the timeouts for firewall attempts to connect with
External Authentication Services.
In addition to the timeouts you set in server profiles for specific servers, the firewall has a
global PAN-OS web server timeout. This global timeout applies when the firewall connects
to any external server for authenticating administrative access to the firewall web interface
or PAN-OS XML API and end user access to applications or services through Authentication
Portal. The global timeout is 30 seconds by default (range is 3 to 125). It must be the same as
or greater than the total time that any server profile allows for connection attempts. The total
time in a server profile is the timeout value multiplied by the number of retries and the number
of servers. For example, if a RADIUS server profile specifies a 3-second timeout, 3 retries, and
4 servers, the total time that the profile allows for connection attempts is 36 seconds (3 x 3 x
4). Modify the PAN-OS Web Server Timeout if necessary.
Do not change the PAN-OS web server timeout unless you see authentication
failures. Setting the timeout too high could degrade the performance of the firewall
or cause it to drop authentication requests. You can review authentication failures in
Authentication logs.
The firewall applies an Authentication Portal session timeout that defines how long end users
can take to respond to the authentication challenge in a Authentication Portal web form. The
web form displays when users request services or applications that match an Authentication
policy rule. The session timeout is 30 seconds by default (range is 1 to 1,599,999). It must
be the same as or greater than the PAN-OS web server timeout. Modify the Authentication
Portal Session Timeout if necessary. Keep in mind that increasing the PAN-OS web server and
Authentication Portal session timeouts might degrade the performance of the firewall or cause
it to drop authentication requests.
The Authentication Portal session timeout is not related to the timers that determine
how long the firewall retains IP address-to-username mappings.
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289 | Authentication
Timeouts are cumulative for authentication sequences. For example, consider the case of
an authentication sequence with two authentication profiles. One authentication profile
specifies a RADIUS server profile with a 3-second timeout, 3 retries, and 4 servers. The other
authentication profile specifies a TACACS+ server profile with a 3-second timeout and 2
servers. The longest possible period in which the firewall can try to authenticate user accounts
with that authentication sequence is 42 seconds: 36 seconds for the RADIUS server profile
plus 6 seconds for the TACACS+ server profile.
The non-configurable timeout for Kerberos servers is 17 seconds for each server specified in
the Kerberos server profile.
To configure the timeouts and related settings for other server types, see:
• Add an MFA server profile.
• Add a SAML IdP server profile.
• Add a TACACS+ server profile.
• Add a RADIUS server profile.
• Add an LDAP server profile.
Modify the PAN-OS Web Server Timeout
The PAN-OS web server timeout must be the same as or greater than the timeout in any
authentication server profile multiplied by the number of retries and the number of servers in that
profile.
Do not change the PAN-OS web server timeout unless you see authentication failures.
Setting the timeout too high could degrade the performance of the firewall or cause it to
drop authentication requests. You can review authentication failures in Authentication
logs.
STEP 1 | Access the firewall CLI.
STEP 2 | Set the PAN-OS web server timeout by entering the following commands, where <value> is
the number of seconds (default is 30; range is 3 to 125).
> configure
# set deviceconfig setting l3-service timeout <value>
# commit
Modify the Authentication Portal Session Timeout
The Authentication Portal session timeout must be the same as or greater than the PAN-OS web
server timeout. For details, see Connection Timeouts for Authentication Servers.
The more you raise the PAN-OS web server and Authentication Portal session timeouts,
the slower Authentication Portal will respond to users.
STEP 1 | Select Device > Setup > Session and edit the Session Timeouts.
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290 | Authentication
STEP 2 | Enter a new Authentication Portal value in seconds (default is 30; range is 1 to 1,599,999)
and click OK.
STEP 3 | Commit your changes.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 291 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
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