Cisco Systems 3560-X, 3750-X Controlling Switch Access with Kerberos

10-39

Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Switch Software Configuration Guide

OL-21521-01

Chapter 10 Configuring Switch-Based Authentication Controlling Switch Access with Kerberos

This feature allows access and authentication requests to be evenly across all RADIUS servers in a server

group. For more information, see the “RADIUS Server Load Balancing” chapter of the “Cisco IOS

Security Configuration Guide”, Release 12.2:

http://www.ciscosystems.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sb/feature/guide/sbrdldbl.html

To display the RADIUS configuration, use the show running-config privileged EXEC command.

Controlling Switch Access with Kerberos

This section describes how to enable and configure the Kerberos security system, which authenticates

requests for network resources by using a trusted third party.

These sections contain this information:

• Understanding Kerberos, page 10-39

• Kerberos Operation, page 10-41

• Configuring Kerberos, page 10-42

For Kerberos configuration examples, see the “Kerberos Configuration Examples” section in the

“Security Server Protocols” chapter of the Cisco IOS Security Configuration Guide, Release 12.2, at this

URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1835/products_configuration_guide_book09186a

0080087df1.html

For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this section, see the “Kerberos

Commands” section in the “Security Server Protocols” chapter of the Cisco IOS Security Command

Reference, Release 12.2, at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1835/products_command_reference_book09186a

0080087e33.html

Note In the Kerberos configuration examples and in the Cisco IOS Security Command Reference,

Release 12.2, the trusted third party can be a switch that supports Kerberos, that is configured as a

network security server, and that can authenticate users by using the Kerberos protocol.

Kerberos is a secret-key network authentication protocol, which was developed at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT). It uses the Data Encryption Standard (DES) cryptographic algorithm for

encryption and authentication and authenticates requests for network resources. Kerberos uses the

concept of a trusted third party to perform secure verification of users and services. This trusted third

party is called the key distribution center (KDC).