RADIUS Termination-Action AVP in wired and wireless scenarios

When authenticating with RADIUS in a wired or wireless scenario, the FortiGate can support proper handling of the Termination-Action AVP.

In a wired scenario, a hardware switch configured with 802.1X security authentication can read the Termination-Action attribute value from the RADIUS Access-Accept response. If the Termination-Action is 1, the FortiGate will initiate re-authentication when the session time has expired. During re-authentication, the port stays authorized. If the Termination-Action is 0, the session will be terminated.

In a wireless scenario, when a virtual AP is configured with WPA2-Enterprise security with RADIUS and has CoA enabled, it processes the RADIUS CoA request immediately upon receiving it and re-authenticates when the Termination-Action is 1.

Wired example

This example has a FortiGate configured with a hardware switch with two ports: port3 and port5. The hardware switch is enabled with 802.1X security and assigned to a RADIUS user group. Upon a successful authentication, the RADIUS server responds with an Access-Accept containing the authentication Session-Timeout and Termination-Action attributes. In this example, the Termination-Action value is 1, which informs the client to re-authenticate when the session time expires. During this time, the FortiGate keeps the client/port authorized while it initiates the re-authentication with the RADIUS server.

The message exchange is as follows:

To configure the RADIUS server and the FortiGate to handle the Termination-Action AVP:

1. On the RADIUS server, configure the Termination-Action AVP with the value RADIUS-Request (1) to indicate that re-authentication should occur upon expiration of the Session-Time.
2. On the FortiGate, configure the RADIUS server:

   config user radius
       edit "rad1"
           set server "172.18.60.203"
           set secret ENC **********
           set radius-coa enable
           config accounting-server
               edit 1
                   set status enable
                   set server "172.18.60.203"
                   set secret ENC **********
               next
           end
       next
   end

3. Configure the RADIUS user group:

   config user group
       edit "group_radius"
           set member "rad1"
       next
   end

4. Configure the hardware switch with 802.1X enabled.
   1. Configure the virtual switch settings:

      config system virtual-switch
          edit hw2
              set physical-switch "sw0"
              config port
                  edit port3
                  next
                  edit port5
                  next
              end
          next
      end

   2. Configure the interface settings:

      config system interface
          edit hw2
              set vdom vdom1
              set ip 6.6.6.1 255.255.255.0
              set allowaccess ping https ssh
              set stp enable
              set security-mode 802.1X
              set security-groups "group_radius"
          next
      end
      
      WARNING: Changing 802.1X could interrupt network connectivity on affected interfaces.
      Do you want to continue? (y/n)y

5. On the client device, initiate 802.1X authentication, then verify that the switch port shows as authorized:

   # diagnose sys 802-1x status
   Virtual switch 'hw2' (default mode) 802.1x member status:
     port3: Link up, 802.1X state: unauthorized
     port5: Link up, 802.1X state: authorized

6. After successful authentication, wait for the session to timeout.
7. The FortiGate will keep the 802.1X port authenticated, and initiate re-authentication with the same Acct-Session-Id to the RADIUS server. The 802.1X status of the port remains unchanged:

   # diagnose sys 802-1x status
   Virtual switch 'hw2' (default mode) 802.1x member status:
     port3: Link up, 802.1X state: unauthorized
     port5: Link up, 802.1X state: authorized

Wireless example

In this example, a virtual AP is configured with WPA2-Enterprise security with RADIUS and has CoA enabled. After a wireless user authenticates and connects to the wireless SSID, the RADIUS server triggers a CoA event with AVPs Session-timeout and a Termination-Action of 1. This signals the FortiGate to trigger re-authentication of the client, which the client immediately performs to stay connected to the wireless SSID.

The message exchange is as follows:

To configure the FortiGate to handle the Termination-Action AVP:

1. Configure the RADIUS server:

   config user radius
       edit "peap"
           set server "172.16.200.55"
           set secret **********
           set radius-coa enable
       next
   end

2. Configure the VAP:

   config wireless-controller vap
       edit "wifi"
           set ssid "FWF-60E-coa"
           set security wpa2-only-enterprise
           set auth radius
           set radius-server "peap"
           set schedule "always"
       next
   end

3. Verify that the wireless station connects to the SSID:

   # diagnose wireless-controller wlac -d sta online
      vf=0 wtp=1 rId=1 wlan=wifi vlan_id=0 ip=10.10.80.2 ip6=:: mac=**:**:**:**:**:** vci= host=wifi-qa-01 user=test1 group=group1 signal=-28 noise=-95 idle=1 bw=0 use=6 chan=149 radio_type=11AC security=wpa2_only_enterprise mpsk= encrypt=aes cp_authed=no online=yes mimo=2

4. From the RADIUS server, manually trigger a RADIUS CoA event.
   1. RADIUS CoA sent to the FortiGate:

      Sent CoA-Request Id 7 from 0.0.0.0:54158 to 172.16.200.201:3799 length 39
          User-Name = "test1"
          Session-Timeout = 120
          Termination-Action = RADIUS-Request

   2. RADIUS CoA-ACK received from the FortiGate:

      Received CoA-ACK Id 7 from 172.16.200.201:3799 to 0.0.0.0:0 length 44
          Event-Timestamp = "Jan  5 2022 14:43:12 PST"
          Message-Authenticator = 0x3311ba3b763d68da653ab34351b0308

5. On the wireless station console, verify that the re-authentication happens immediately:

   root@wifi-qa-01:/home/wpa-test# wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-EAP-STARTED EAP authentication started
   wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-EAP-PROPOSED-METHOD vendor=0 method=25
   wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-EAP-METHOD EAP vendor 0 method 25 (PEAP) selected
   EAP-TLV: TLV Result - Success - EAP-TLV/Phase2 Completed
   wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-EAP-SUCCESS EAP authentication completed successfully
   wlan1: PMKSA-CACHE-REMOVED **:**:**:**:**:** 0
   wlan1: PMKSA-CACHE-ADDED **:**:**:**:**:** 0
   wlan1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with **:**:**:**:**:** [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]