Question

Cisco AnyConnect SSL VPN Security Flaw

Asked by: mschwen

This maintenance weekend I configured Cisco AnyConnect VPN to accomidate to our 64bit clients. Unfortunately there is a security flaw and I am not quite sure if there are any other methods to this, let me explain.

Currently we use the Cisco Easy VPN client with IPSEC remote access, which works great. We only want Corporate assigned laptops and computers to be able to connect to the VPN to avoid security problems with public computers, we do not give out the KEY we have them import a .pcf file into thier VPN client to avoid entering a key so we can keep it secret.

With AnyConnect VPN all you do is point to the web address of the firewall, download the client and log on using your domain account. This could be any computer at any coffee shop / hotspot in the world, thus compramising our security policies.

I cannot find any information about locking AnyConnect down to only specific computers, is there anyone who has any ideas about the best way to do this?

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Asked On
2009-08-17 at 08:25:22ID24658469
Tags

Cisco ASA AnyConnect

Topics

Virtual Private Networking (VPN)

,

Miscellaneous Security

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: stsonlinePosted on 2009-08-17 at 09:43:44ID: 25116130

I'm not certain I see your concern - while it is true that anyone at any 'coffee shop/hotspot' may be able to access the port your SSL VPN is running on, only authorized domain users can log onto the VPN. You can minimize any exposure by using additional security, such as adding RSA tokens or issuing certificates and requiring a certificate for access to the VPN portal. You can further limit connectivity by restricting the client access types to only certain OSes or only the specific version of the image you run. In essence, if it's an option in the group-policy or tunnel-group command set, you can probably use it. However, be careful adding too many restrictions - you may end up with a useless Anyconnect client.

 

by: stsonlinePosted on 2009-08-17 at 09:45:30ID: 25116141

Sorry, I entirely missed the first line - this is for 64-bit clients, and at the moment Anyconnect is the only supported VPN client for 64-bit systems... now I understand the reason behind the question.

 

by: mschwenPosted on 2009-08-17 at 09:49:15ID: 25116163

The concern isn't specifically a network security concern as it is a SOCKS concern. Because we are a fortune 500 company and are public we have many restrictions and policies that have to be governed, pretty much my boss told me that I had to find a way to limit the client to Corporate computers only or we could not deploy it.

 

by: MikeKanePosted on 2009-08-17 at 10:27:17ID: 25116429

With the ASA 8.2, there seems to be new authentication options that enable something close to two-factor....

Quote from the Wiki:
With upcoming ASA version 8.2, the SSL VPN (Clientless and AnyConnect)will support secondary/double authentication. For example you can have RSA/OTP+LDAP authentication, or certificates+RSA/OTP+LDAP,etc.

Have you given a thought to using certifactes on clients along with id/password?  

 

by: mschwenPosted on 2009-08-17 at 10:54:11ID: 25116666

I think that is the solution I am leaning toward, however I have never setup a VPN using a certificate for the client. How is that certificate distributed to the client?

 

by: stsonlinePosted on 2009-08-17 at 12:02:51ID: 25117299

The short answer:

You need to configure the firewall as a local Certificate Authority (CA), then create users and their certificates, then notify the user (generally via email) to pick up the certificate by logging onto a link provided in the email. Check out the ASA Configuration Guide on Cisco's website or grab a copy of this book:

The Complete Cisco VPN Configuration Guide
# By Richard Deal.
# Published by Cisco Press
ISBN-10: 1-58705-204-0; ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-204-0; Published: Dec 15, 2005

 

by: mschwenPosted on 2009-08-17 at 12:49:18ID: 25117762

Thank you, that is a great solution. I am awaiting the approval or Cisco's NAC (Network Access Control) which would be the ideal solution. With that I can control only domain enabled machines to use the VPN at all. If I don't get approval to purchase NAC I will go with client certificates. Thank you.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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