Cisco Systems OL-29225-01 Controlling Access Point Access with RADIUS

5-12

Cisco IOS Software Configuration Guide for Cisco Aironet Access Points

OL-30644-01

Chapter5 Administrating the Access Point

Controlling Access Point Access with RADIUS

Your current security settings put computer at risk.

Controlling Access Point Access with RADIUS

This section describes how to control administrator access to the wireless device using Remote

Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS). For complete instructions on configuring the wireless

device to support RADIUS, see Chapter 13, “Configuring RADIUS and TACACS+ Servers.”

RADIUS provides detailed accounting information and flexible administrative control over

authentication and authorization processes. RADIUS is facilitated through AAA and can be enabled only

through AAA commands.

Note For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this section, refer to the Cisco IOS

Security Command Reference for Release 12.3.

These sections describe RADIUS configuration:

•Default RADIUS Configuration, page5-12

•Configuring RADIUS Login Authentication, page5-12 (required)

•Defining AAA Server Groups, page 5-14 (optional)

•Configuring RADIUS Authorization for User Privileged Access and Network Services, page5-16

(optional)

•Displaying the RADIUS Configuration, page5-17

RADIUS and AAA are disabled by default.

To prevent a lapse in security, you cannot configure RADIUS through a network management

application. When enabled, RADIUS can authenticate users accessing the wireless device through the

CLI.

To configure AAA authentication, you define a named list of authentication methods and then apply that

list to various interfaces. The method list defines the types of authentication to be performed and the

sequence in which they are performed; it must be applied to a specific interface before any of the defined

authentication methods are performed. The only exception is the default method list (which, by

coincidence, is named default). The default method list is automatically applied to all interfaces except

those that have a named method list explicitly defined.

A method list describes the sequence and authentication methods to be queried to authenticate a user.

You can designate one or more security protocols to be used for authentication, thus ensuring a backup

system for authentication in case the initial method fails. The software uses the first method listed to

authenticate users; if that method fails to respond, the software selects the next authentication method in

the method list. This process continues until there is successful communication with a listed