How It Works - Colubris Networks CN3000 Administrator's Manual

Chapter 8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NOC authentication - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Chapter 8

How it works

The NOC authentication feature provides a secure way of authenticating public access
customers, with strong mutual authentication between the login application on the web
server hosting the remote login page and the CN3000 used for authenticating customer
logins. This occurs via the two Colubris-AVPair value strings (ssl-noc-certificate and
ssl-noc-ca-certificate), which define the locations of two certificates. These certificates
enable the CN3000 to validate that the customer login information does indeed come
from a trusted application. For example, from a login application on the web server.
The following diagram shows the sequence of events for a typical customer session
when using the NOC-based authentication feature.
Customer
Non-authenticated
customer attempts to
browse an external
Web site via the WLAN.
Customer clicks to
continue.
Customer logs in.
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CN3000
Request is intercepted.
Service Announcement
page is returned.
Web browser is redirected.
The login application's
SSL certificate is verified.
If valid, approves connection.
Login info is sent
to RADIUS server.
Login results message
is returned to the login
application.
.
RADIUS server
Login approved.
Customer configuration
settings are returned.
Web server hosting
remote login page
Login application sends
login page.
Login application initiates
an SSL connection with
the CN3000.
Customer login info is
sent for authentication.
Login application sends
the Welcome page
with URL of originally
requested web site.