I have set up a FreeRADIUS server to interface with a Cisco managed switch. I am able to authenticate supplicants using the EAP-TLS protocol. When I activate FIPS mode in openssl (v3.1.5), I get the following debug output: Ready to process requests (5) Received Access-Request Id 62 from 192.168.5.132:49205 to 192.168.5.83:1812 length 131 Dropping packet without response because of error: Received packet from 192.168.5.132 with invalid Message-Authenticator! (Shared secret is incorrect.) (from client cisco) I know the shared secret is correct, because it works when not in FIPS mode. The shared secret is 15 characters long and includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Do I need additional configuration?
More information: FreeRADIUS version 3.0.26 -----Original Message----- From: Timothy J. Ebben Sent: Thursday, November 7, 2024 12:03 PM To: freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org Subject: openssl FIPS mode I have set up a FreeRADIUS server to interface with a Cisco managed switch. I am able to authenticate supplicants using the EAP-TLS protocol. When I activate FIPS mode in openssl (v3.1.5), I get the following debug output: Ready to process requests (5) Received Access-Request Id 62 from 192.168.5.132:49205 to 192.168.5.83:1812 length 131 Dropping packet without response because of error: Received packet from 192.168.5.132 with invalid Message-Authenticator! (Shared secret is incorrect.) (from client cisco) I know the shared secret is correct, because it works when not in FIPS mode. The shared secret is 15 characters long and includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Do I need additional configuration?
On Nov 7, 2024, at 6:02 PM, Timothy J. Ebben via Freeradius-Users <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> wrote:
I have set up a FreeRADIUS server to interface with a Cisco managed switch. I am able to authenticate supplicants using the EAP-TLS protocol. When I activate FIPS mode in openssl (v3.1.5), I get the following debug output:
Ready to process requests (5) Received Access-Request Id 62 from 192.168.5.132:49205 to 192.168.5.83:1812 length 131 Dropping packet without response because of error: Received packet from 192.168.5.132 with invalid Message-Authenticator! (Shared secret is incorrect.) (from client cisco)
FIPS mode disables MD5. How exactly it does that depends on OpenSSL. Just checking, and it looks like we don't explicitly enable FIPS mode. That's likely good to add.
I know the shared secret is correct, because it works when not in FIPS mode. The shared secret is 15 characters long and includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
Do I need additional configuration?
No. Don't enable FIPS mode. The RADIUS protocol uses MD5. MS-CHAP uses MD4. Alan DeKok.
Alan Dekok wrote:
Don't enable FIPS mode. The RADIUS protocol uses MD5. MS-CHAP uses MD4.
Thank you for your advice. I was misled by an out-of-date reference. According to the following link, FreeRADIUS can be used with FIPS mode: https://networkradius.com/articles/2020/10/28/freeradius-fips.html Specifically:
FreeRADIUS just passes a special flag EVP_MD_CTX_FLAG_NON_FIPS_ALLOW to the OpenSSL APIs!
Unfortunately, that flag has no effect in openssl version 3. Perhaps the above documentation could be updated.
On Nov 7, 2024, at 6:46 PM, Timothy J. Ebben via Freeradius-Users <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> wrote:
Thank you for your advice. I was misled by an out-of-date reference. According to the following link, FreeRADIUS can be used with FIPS mode: https://networkradius.com/articles/2020/10/28/freeradius-fips.html
Specifically:
FreeRADIUS just passes a special flag EVP_MD_CTX_FLAG_NON_FIPS_ALLOW to the OpenSSL APIs!
Unfortunately, that flag has no effect in openssl version 3. Perhaps the above documentation could be updated.
It appears that OpenSSL3 change the behavior of their APIs. We'll take a look. Alan DeKok.
On Nov 8, 2024, at 7:53 AM, Alan DeKok <aland@deployingradius.com> wrote:
It appears that OpenSSL3 change the behavior of their APIs. We'll take a look.
I've found the OpenSSL3 way of doing it, and updated the v3.0.x and v.3.2.x branches. This will be in the next release. Alan DeKok.
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Alan DeKok -
Timothy J. Ebben