GlobalProtect
Seamless Soft-Token Authentication from GlobalProtect App
Table of Contents
Seamless Soft-Token Authentication from GlobalProtect App
Describes how GlobalProtect integrates the RSA OTP soft-token
when signing in.
Software Support: Starting with GlobalProtect™
app 5.1.
OS support: Windows operating systems (requires
registry key changes)
To simplify the login process and improve
the users’ experience, GlobalProtect offers seamless soft-token
authentication with a two-factor authentication vendor such as RSA
SecurID. The user enters the RSA PIN in the GlobalProtect Password field,
and GlobalProtect retrieves the passcode from RSA and proceeds with
the connection without the user taking the extra step of opening
the RSA application.
With this change, users no longer need
a two-step process where they are required to first open their software
token app and enter their PIN to obtain a passcode, then enter the
passcode in their GlobalProtect app in the Password field.
Seamless
soft-token authentication is supported for all three RSA modes:
PinPad Style (PIN integrated with token code), Fob Style (PIN followed
by token code) and Pinless mode. For PinPad and Fob Style, the user
enters the PIN in the Password field and
GlobalProtect retrieves the passcode. In Pinless mode, the Password
field is grayed out and users enter their username.
- Change the registry keys on the client Windows
devices to enable seamless soft-token authentication.You must change the Windows registry on the clients’ Windows devices before you can enable seamless soft-token authentication. GlobalProtect retrieves this registry entry only once, when the GlobalProtect app initializes.
- Open the Windows Registry Editor and select .
- Change the auth-api value to yes.Because auth-api is set as yes in the client machine, you should configure the portal and gateways with RSA-based authentication. No other authentication profile is supported because GlobalProtect will attempt to retrieve the passcode.Because the portal and gateway use RSA Authentication, we recommend that you enable cookie-based authentication on gateways. The token that is retrieved for the portal may still be active when GlobalProtect tries to get passcode for the gateway, and authentication may fail because the passcode was already used. Therefore, we suggest that you generate an Authentication Override cookie on the portal and Accept the cookie on the gateway.
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- Configure the portal and gateway with RSA-based authentication.
- Enable cookie-based authentication on the GlobalProtect
portal.Specifying GlobalProtect to override an existing authentication allows GlobalProtect to overwrite an existing passcode with a newly-created passcode.
- Select ; then select the Agent tab.
- Add an Agent config or select an existing one.
- Select Generate cookie for authentication
override.
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- Enable the GlobalProtect gateway to accept cookies for
authentication overrides.
- Select and select the Agent tab.
- Select Client Settings, then select the GlobalProtect client config or add a new one.
- Select Authentication Override;
then, select Accept cookie for authentication override.
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- Select ; then select the Authentication tab.
- Add a new client authentication
profile or select an existing one; then, select Automatically
retrieve passcode from SoftToken application.
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