Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CVD Navigator..............................................................................................................................2
Use Cases................................................................................................................................... 2
Scope.......................................................................................................................................... 2
Proficiency................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Technology Use Case.................................................................................................................. 3
Use Case: Manage the Safe Use of Web-based and Social Networking Applications
with an On-premise Security Appliance.................................................................................. 3
Design Overview.......................................................................................................................... 4
Appendix B: Changes.................................................................................................................41
Table of Contents
Preface
Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) present systems that are based on common use cases or engineering priorities.
CVDs incorporate a broad set of technologies, features, and applications that address customer needs. Cisco
engineers have comprehensively tested and documented each design in order to ensure faster, more reliable,
and fully predictable deployment.
CVDs include two guide types that provide tested design details:
• Technology design guides provide deployment details, information about validated products and
software, and best practices for specific types of technology.
• Solution design guides integrate existing CVDs but also include product features and functionality
across Cisco products and sometimes include information about third-party integration.
Both CVD types provide a tested starting point for Cisco partners or customers to begin designing and deploying
systems.
The CVD Foundation series incorporates wired and wireless LAN, WAN, data center, security, and network
management technologies. Using the CVD Foundation simplifies system integration, allowing you to select
solutions that solve an organization’s problems—without worrying about the technical complexity.
To ensure the compatibility of designs in the CVD Foundation, you should use guides that belong to the same
release. For the most recent CVD Foundation guides, please visit the CVD Foundation web site.
Use Cases
This guide addresses the following technology use cases: Related CVD Guides
• Manage the Safe Use of Web-Based and Social Networking
Applications with an On-premise Security Appliance—All
web traffic from the primary-site and remote-site networks Firewall and IPS Technology
accesses the Internet through a centralized Cisco Adaptive VALIDATED
DESIGN Design Guide
Security Appliance (ASA) firewall. Cisco Web Security
Appliance (WSA) complements the deep packet inspection
and stateful filtering capabilities of the firewall by providing
additional web security using a dedicated on-premises
Cloud Web Security
appliance.
VALIDATED
DESIGN Using Cisco ASA
Technology Design Guide
For more information, see the "Use Cases" section in this guide.
Proficiency
This guide is for people with the following technical proficiencies—or
equivalent experience:
• CCNA Routing and Switching—1 to 3 years installing,
configuring, and maintaining routed and switched networks
• CCNA Security—1 to 3 years installing, monitoring, and
troubleshooting network devices to maintain integrity,
confidentiality, and availability of data and devices
To view the related CVD guides, click the titles
or visit the CVD Foundation web site.
One risk associated with Internet access for the organization is the pervasive threat that exists from accessing
sites and content. As the monetary gain for malicious activities on the Internet has grown and developed, the
methods used to affect these malicious and or illegal activities has grown and become more sophisticated.
Botnets, one of the greatest threats that exist in the Internet today, are malicious Internet servers (mostly web)
being used to host content that then attacks innocent user’s browsers as they view the content. These types
of attacks have been used very successfully by “bot herders” to gather in millions of infected members that
are subject to the whims of the people who now control their machines. Other threats include the still popular
and very broad threats of viruses and trojans, in which a user receives a file in some manner and is tricked into
running it, and the file then executes malicious code. The third variant uses directed attacks over the network.
Examples of these attacks are the Internet worms that gathered so much attention in the early to mid-2000s.
Use Case: Manage the Safe Use of Web-based and Social Networking Applications
with an On-premise Security Appliance
All web traffic from the primary site and any remote-site networks access the Internet through a centralized
Cisco ASA firewall. Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA) complements the deep packet inspection and stateful
filtering capabilities of the firewall by providing additional web security using a dedicated on-premises appliance.
Browsing websites can be risky, and many websites inadvertently end up distributing compromised or malicious
content as a result of inattention to update requirements or lax security configurations. The websites that serve the
compromised and malicious content are constantly changing as human-operated and worm-infested computers
scan the Internet in search of additional web servers that they can infect in order to continue propagating. This
dynamic environment introduces significant challenges to maintain up-to-date Internet threat profiles.
The Cisco WSA family is a web proxy that works with other Cisco network components such as firewalls, routers,
or switches in order to monitor and control web content requests from within the organization. It also scrubs the
return traffic for malicious content.
Cisco WSA uses several mechanisms to apply web security and content control. Cisco WSA begins with basic
URL-filtering with predefined, category-based web usage controls. These controls are based on an active
database that includes analysis of sites in 190 countries and over 50 languages. Content is filtered by the
reputation database. The Cisco Security Intelligence Operations updates the reputation database every five
minutes. These updates contain threat information gleaned from multiple Internet-based resources, as well as
content reputation information obtained from customers with Cisco security appliances that choose to participate
in the Cisco SenderBase network. If no details of the website or its content are known, Cisco WSA applies
dynamic content analysis to determine the nature of the content in real time, and findings are fed back to the
SenderBase repository if the customer has elected to participate.
Cisco WSA uses an on-premise appliance for web security that is similar in function to Cisco Cloud Web Security
(CWS), which is a cloud-based method of implementing web security. This guide is focused on the deployment
of Cisco WSA.
Cisco WSA inspects the content for remote-access VPN connected users in both the integrated (seen in Figure
3 on the left) and standalone (seen in Figure 3 on the right) deployment models as described in the Remote
Access VPN Technology Design Guide.
This guide uses the following conventions for Commands at a CLI or script prompt:
commands that you enter at the command-line Router# enable
interface (CLI).
Long commands that line wrap are underlined.
Commands to enter at a CLI prompt: Enter them as one command:
configure terminal police rate 10000 pps burst 10000
packets conform-action
Commands that specify a value for a variable:
ntp server 10.10.48.17 Noteworthy parts of system output (or of device
configuration files) are highlighted:
Commands with variables that you must define: interface Vlan64
class-map [highest class name] ip address 10.5.204.5 255.255.255.0
The first step to planning the Cisco WSA deployment is to determine how to redirect web traffic to the appliance.
There are two possible methods to accomplish the redirection of traffic to Cisco WSA: transparent proxy mode
and explicit proxy mode.
In a transparent proxy deployment, a WCCP v2-capable network device redirects all TCP traffic with a
destination of port 80 or 443 to Cisco WSA, without any configuration on the client. The transparent proxy
deployment is used in this design guide, and the Cisco ASA firewall is used to redirect traffic to the appliance
because all of the outbound web traffic passes through the device and is generally managed by the same
operations staff who manage the Cisco WSA.
In an explicit proxy deployment, a client application, such as a web browser, is configured to use an HTTP
proxy, such as Cisco WSA. From an application support standpoint, this method introduces the least amount of
complications, as the proxy-aware applications know about and work with Cisco WSA directly to provide the
requested content. However, from a deployment standpoint, the explicit proxy method presents challenges as
to how the administrator configures every client in the organization with the Cisco WSA proxy settings and how
they configure devices not under the organization’s control. Web Proxy Auto-Discovery and proxy automatic
configuration scripts, along with other tools, such as Microsoft Group and System policy controls within Microsoft
Active Directory, make deploying this method simpler, but a discussion of those tools is beyond the scope of this
guide.
It is possible to use both options—explicit proxy and transparent proxy—at the same time on a single Cisco WSA
appliance. Explicit proxy is also a good way to test the Cisco WSA configuration, as explicit proxy mode does not
depend on anything else in the network to function.
Internet
Internet Edge
Internet
Routers
RA-VPN Firewall Guest
Wireless LAN
Controller
DMZ
Switch
Web
Security
Appliance DMZ
Servers
Email Security
Appliance
VPN WAN
Aggregation
WAN
Routers
WAAS
3011
To Core
A single Cisco WSA appliance was deployed in the Internet edge design to support up to 5,000 users. For
those who need either additional performance or resilience, a simple upgrade solution is possible by adding
an additional appliance. When deployed in high availability mode, the two appliances load-share the outgoing
connections. If one device fails, the load is moved to the other appliance. It is possible that network performance
could be degraded if one device is handling the load that was designed for two, but Internet web access remains
available and protected.
Before you begin the Cisco WSA deployment, you need to configure the DNS.
Prepare for the following configuration procedures by creating the DNS records that are required for
communication. The DNS address (A) record provides a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to IP addressing
mapping and the DNS pointer record (PTR) provides an IP to FQDN mapping, also known as a reverse lookup.
Configure your internal DNS server to advertise the records listed in Table 1.
The LAN distribution switch is the path to the organization’s internal network. As configured in the Firewall and
IPS Technology Design Guide, a unique VLAN supports the Internet edge devices and the routing protocol peers
with the appliances across this network.
Reader Tip
Before you continue, ensure that the distribution switch has been configured following
the guidance in the Campus Wired LAN Technology Design Guide.
Step 1: Configure the interfaces that are connected to the distribution switch.
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/22
description WSAs100v M1 Management interface
switchport access vlan 300
switchport host
macro apply EgressQoS
logging event link-status
no shutdown
Option 2: Switch connection to virtual WSA (vWSA) within a VMware ESXi server
Step 1: Connect a standard null modem cable, with the terminal emulator settings of 8-1-none-9600 baud, to
the appliance’s serial console port.
Step 1: Using vSphere, right-click on the server name of the vWSA and select Open Console.
Tech Tip
ironport.example.com> interfaceconfig
You have not entered an HTTPS certificate. To assure privacy, run "certconfig"
first. You may use the demo, but this will not be secure.
Do you really wish to use a demo certificate? [Y]> y
Both HTTP and HTTPS are enabled for this interface, should HTTP requests redirect
to the secure service? [Y]> y
The interface you edited might be the one you are currently logged into. Are you
sure you want to change it? [Y]> y
Tech Tip
The appliance console displays the following message, which corresponds to the
default IP address of the Cisco WSA appliance:
Please run System Setup Wizard at http://192.168.42.42:8080
ironport.example.com> setgateway
ironport.example.com> commit
Step 1: Prepare for the following configuration procedures by creating the DNS record required for
communication with the WSA. The DNS address (A) record provides a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to
IP addressing mapping and the DNS pointer record (PTR) provides an IP to FQDN mapping, also known as a
reverse lookup.
Configure your internal DNS server to advertise the record listed inTable 2.
FQDN IP address
IE-WSA-s100v.cisco.local 10.4.24.15
It is recommended that you configure only the basic network settings, DNS information, time settings, and
username/password information through the System Setup Wizard, and you configure the more advanced
settings in the respective sections in the UI.
The System Setup Wizard screens and options vary by code version. Depending on the starting code version of
the appliance that you are configuring, the screens may differ from those shown below.
Step 1: From a client on the internal network, navigate and log in to the appliance. The GUI uses HTTPS on port
8443. (Example: https://10.4.24.15:8443).
Tech Tip
Step 2: Log in, and then navigate to System Administration > System Setup Wizard.
Step 3: On the Start page, read the license, click I accept, and then click Begin Setup.
Step 5: Select Use these DNS Servers, and then enter the internal DNS server. (Example: 10.4.48.10).
Step 6: In the NTP Server box, enter the internal NTP server. (Example: 10.4.48.17)
Step 7: For the time zone, enter the following information, and then click Next:
• Region—America
• Country—United States
• Time Zone / GMT Offset—Pacific Time (Los_Angeles)
Step 8: For the Appliance Mode of Operation, select the Standard radio button; then click Next.
Step 10: On the Network Interfaces and Wiring page, click Next. When you completed Procedure 4, “Configure
management access to the Cisco WSA,” you completed the necessary configuration for this page.
Tech Tip
In this deployment, for simplicity, M1 is used for both management and proxy services
and is the only interface used. Do not select Use M1 port for Management only. Do
not use interface P1.
Step 11: On the Routes for Management and Data Traffic page, click Next. When you completed Procedure 4,
“Configure management access to the Cisco WSA,” you completed the necessary configuration for this page.
Step 13: On the Administrative Settings page, in the Administrator Password box, enter and confirm the
administrator password.
Step 15: In the Send Email via SMTP Relay Host box, enter the internal mail server (Example: internal-
exchange.cisco.local), and then click Next.
Tech Tip
On this page, you can also elect to participate in the Cisco SenderBase network and
select a participation level.
Step 16: On the Security Settings page, use the default settings, and then click Next.
Step 17: On the Review page, review the configuration, and then click Install This Configuration.
Step 18: The virtual machine will now try to re-establish the web page using the new machine name you set in
this procedure. Check your DNS entries if it cannot connect.
It is important to look at system upgrades for Cisco WSA before going any further. HTTP or HTTPS Internet
access for the appliance is required in order to proceed.
Tech Tip
Step 1: Navigate to System Administration > System Upgrade. The display shows the current software version.
If newer versions are available, they should be selected and installed. In general, all upgrades should be installed.
Each upgrade usually requires a reboot of the appliance. The entire process can take some time.
It is important to install the feature keys for Cisco WSA before going any further. HTTP or HTTPS Internet access
for the appliance is required in order to proceed. When installing feature keys, Cisco WSA makes a connection
to the license service and submits a query to see if it has all the features it is allowed to run. It is very likely that
after upgrading code, especially if many upgrades were applied, there will be missing feature keys.
The figure below shows what an appliance feature key display may look like after being upgraded to the latest
version of code and then checking for updated feature keys.
Tech Tip
If the appliance is missing keys or the duration of the keys is not correct, contact a
trusted partner or Cisco reseller to resolve the issue. Have the appliance serial number
available. You can find the serial number at the top of the Feature Key page.
Step 2: Click Update Now, and then wait until the page reports back success.
Tech Tip
Step 4: Set up a client on the inside of the network with Cisco WSA as the explicit proxy in the web browser of
their choice. Use the IP address of the appliance as the proxy, and then set the port to 3128.
To monitor web usage, the appliance stores client access data for a relatively short duration and it rotates
logs for space reasons. For users looking for long-term compliance reporting, they should look into the Cisco
solution that comes as part of the Cisco Content Security Management Appliance. This guide does not cover the
installation or use of the Cisco Content Security Management Appliance.
For the reporting product to work, Cisco WSA needs to send its logs to an FTP server where the reporting
device can access them. For this deployment, it is assumed that an FTP server is already deployed and
configured. The following configuration moves the access logs off of Cisco WSA and onto an FTP server.
Step 1: Navigate to System Administration > Log Subscriptions, and then click Add Log Subscription.
Step 2: On the New Log Subscription page, add the new logging information, click Submit, and then click
Commit Changes.
Next, you set up standard custom URL categories that most administrators find they need to implement for their
desired URL filtering.
Step 1: Navigate to Web Security Manager > Custom URL Categories, and then click Add Custom Category.
Step 2: In the Edit Custom URL Category pane, in the Category Name box, enter Block List.
Step 3: In the Sites box, enter a placeholder URL (Example: block.com), and then click Submit.
Tech Tip
Step 4: Create three more lists by repeating Step 1 through Step 3. In the Category Name box, name the new
lists Monitor List, Warn List, and Allow List. The List Order value increments with each new category; use the
suggested value.
Step 6: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
Now that you have created the custom URL categories, you need to enable them for use and define actions for
each.
Step 1: Navigate to Web Security Manager > Access Policies, and then under URL Filtering, click the link.
Step 2: Click Select Custom Categories. The policies created in the previous procedure appear.
Step 3: For each custom URL category, in the Setting Selection list, choose Include in Policy, and then click
Apply.
Additionally, on the Access Policies page, the organization’s web-acceptable use policy can be implemented.
This policy can include the category of the URL (adult, sports, or streaming media), the actions desired (monitor,
warn, or block), as well as whether a time-based factor is involved.
Step 6: On the Access Policies page, under URL Filtering, click the link.
Step 7: For testing purposes, next to Gambling select Block, next to Sports and Recreation select Warn, and
then click Submit. You may need to scroll to see all predefined URL categories.
Step 9: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
Now that Cisco WSA is working and applying an access policy for HTTP traffic, you can implement WCCP on the
appliance and the appliance firewall. Implementing WCCP allows the Cisco WSA appliance to begin to receive
traffic transparently (redirected from the firewall) instead of having browsers configured to use Cisco WSA as an
explicit proxy.
Step 1: Navigate to Network > Transparent Redirection, and then click Edit Device.
Step 2: In the Type list, choose WCCP v2 Router, and then click Submit.
Step 3: In the Transparent Redirection pane, under WCCPv2 Services, click Add Service.
Step 4: In the WCCP v2 Service pane, ensure the Service Profile Name is HTTP_and_HTTPS_WCCP.
Step 5: In the Service section, in the Dynamic service ID box, enter 90. This is the number used to define this
policy and is the ID used by Cisco ASA to request the policy.
Step 7: In the Router IP Addresses box, enter the IP address of the inside interface of your firewall (Example:
10.4.24.30) and then click Submit.
Tech Tip
HTTPS proxy has not yet been set up on Cisco WSA, so if WCCP redirect were to
be initiated for HTTPS immediately, those connections would fail. If the Cisco WSA or
Cisco ASA deployment is live and operational and cannot have downtime, create an
additional policy for just HTTP temporarily. After configuring the HTTPS policy on the
Cisco WSA, change the policy used on Cisco ASA to instead reference the HTTP and
HTTPS policy.
Step 8: If you want to create an HTTP-only policy, repeat Step 3 through Step 7 using the following information:
• Service Profile Name—Standard_HTTP_Only_WCCP
• Service—Standard Service ID
• Router IP Addresses—10.4.24.30
After completion, the WCCP services panel should look like the following figure.
Step 10: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
The WCCP policy configured redirects all HTTP and HTTPS traffic to Cisco WSA. This includes any traffic from
the inside network to the DMZ web servers and any device management traffic that uses HTTP or HTTPS. It
is unnecessary to send any of this traffic to Cisco WSA. To avoid having any of this traffic redirected to Cisco
WSA, you must create an access control list (ACL) on the firewall in order to filter out any HTTP or HTTPS traffic
destined to RFC 1918 addresses.
Reader Tip
This procedure assumes that the Internet edge firewall has already been configured
following the guidance in Firewall and IPS Design Guide.
Step 2: Navigate to Configuration > Device Management > Advanced > WCCP > Service Groups, and the
click Add.
Step 3: If you are configuring an HTTP and HTTPS policy, on the Add Service Group dialog box, select Dynamic
Service Number, and then enter the value of 90 that was configured as a service ID in Procedure 13, Step 5.
Step 4: On the Add Service Group dialog box, next to Redirect List, click Manage.
Step 7: On the Add ACL dialog box, in the ACL Name box, enter WCCP_Redirect_List, and then click OK.
Step 8: Repeat Step 9 and Step 16 for all entries in Table 3.
Step 9: In ACL Manager window, select the WCCP_Redirect_List ACL, click Add, and then click Add ACE.
Step 10: For the Action option, select the action. (Example: deny)
Step 11: In the Source box, choose the source. (Example: any4)
Step 13: In the Service box, enter the service. (Example: ip)
Step 14: In the Description box, enter a useful description. (Example: Block RFC-1918 10.0.0.0/8)
Step 16: In the Logging Level list, choose the logging level value, and then click OK. (Example: Default)
Step 17: After adding all of the ACEs listed in Table 3, click OK.
Step 20: Navigate to Configuration > Device Management > Advanced > WCCP > Redirection, and then click
Add.
Step 21: If you are configuring an HTTP and HTTPS policy, on the Add WCCP Redirection dialog box, in the
Interface list, choose inside, in the Service Group list, choose 90, and then click OK.
If you are configuring an HTTP-only policy, in the Interface list, choose inside, in the Service Group list, choose
web-cache, and then click OK.
Step 23: If you want to test the configuration, use a browser that is not already configured to go to the appliance
as an explicit proxy (or remove the explicit proxy settings), and test to the following sites:
• A resolvable allowed address, such as www.cisco.com
• A resolvable blocked address (from one of the previously configured Blocked categories)
This procedure is required when using the integrated deployment model for firewall and remote-access VPN.
If you are using the standalone deployment model, the default tunnel gateway is already configured, skip to
Procedure 16, “Set up HTTPS proxy.”
Cisco WSA must inspect traffic from remote-access VPN clients to and from the Internet. To accomplish this, all
traffic to and from the VPN clients must be routed toward the LAN distribution switch, regardless of the traffic’s
destination, so that the Cisco ASA appliance can properly redirect the traffic to the Cisco WSA appliance.
Step 1: From a client on the internal network, navigate to the firewall’s inside IP address, and then launch Cisco
ASA Security Device Manager. (Example: https://10.4.24.30)
Step 2: In Configuration > Device Setup > Routing > Static Routes, click Add.
To set up Cisco WSA to proxy HTTPS connections, start by enabling the feature.
Step 1: On the Cisco WSA appliance, navigate to Security Services > HTTPS Proxy, and then click Enable and
Edit Settings.
Step 2: On the HTTPS Proxy License Agreement page, click Accept.
Tech Tip
You need to generate a certificate for Cisco WSA to use on the client side of the
proxy connection. Generating a self-signed certificate causes the client browser to
warn about the certificate for each connection to an HTTPS website. To avoid this,
upload a certificate that was issued from an organization’s trusted certificate authority
to the appliance. If the clients already have the trusted root certificate loaded on their
machines, the HTTPS proxy does not generate errors related to unknown certificate
authority.
Step 3: On the Edit HTTPS Proxy Settings page, in the Root Certificate for Signing section, select Use
Generated Certificate and Key, and then click Generate New Certificate and Key.
Step 4: In the Generate Certificate and Key dialog box, enter values relevant to your organization, and then click
Generate.
Step 6: When you are finished editing, click Submit, and then click Commit Changes.
Step 7: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
Reader Tip
For more information about using certificates as part of the Cisco WSA HTTPS proxy
mechanism, see the Cisco WSA End-User Guides at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/
products/ps10164/products_user_guide_list.html, or consult a trusted partner or Cisco
sales representative.
Step 8: Navigate to Web Security Manager > Custom URL Categories, and then click Add Custom Category.
Step 9: In the Edit Custom URL Category pane, in the category name box, enter Drop List.
Step 10: In the Sites box, enter a placeholder URL (Example: drop.com), and then click Submit.
Step 11: Repeat Step 9 and Step 10 to create two more custom categories. For the category names, enter
Decrypt List and Pass Through List, and then click Commit Changes.
Step 14: Under the URL Filtering box, click the link.
Step 15: On the Decryption Policies: URL Categories: Global Policy page, click Select Custom Categories.
Step 16: In the Select Custom Categories for this Policy window, for each of the three new custom categories, in
the Setting Selection list, choose Include in policy, and then click Apply.
Step 19: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
Step 21: Under the URL Filtering box, click the link.
The predefined URL categories at the bottom of the page allow an administrator to create and enforce a policy
around how Cisco WSA handles specific types of websites with relation to decryption. Some organizations have
strict policies about not decrypting certain sites, such as health care or financial websites. The categories on this
page allow an administrator to enforce that policy on the appliance. For example, it is possible to configure Cisco
WSA so that financial HTTPS websites are set to Pass Through so they are not proxied, while gambling sites are
set to Drop.
Step 22: Change the action for Gambling to Drop, and change the action for Finance to Pass Through, and then
click Submit.
Step 24: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
Step 25: If your Cisco ASA is configured to use an HTTP and HTTPS policy, skip to Step 28.
If your Cisco ASA was configured with an HTTP-only policy, you should now change to the HTTP and HTTPS
policy. On the Cisco ASA appliance, navigate to Configuration > Device Management > Advanced > WCCP >
Redirection, and then click Edit.
Step 28: If you want to test the new configuration, set up categories for webpages that you know are encrypted
(HTTPS) and then use those URLs in the testing process. Because the administrator has to know whether the
site uses HTTPS, use a custom URL category and put the address in the Drop List. When that site is accessed,
Cisco WSA should drop the connection.
Authentication is the act of confirming the identity of a user. When authentication is enabled, Cisco WSA
authenticates clients on the network before allowing them to connect to a destination server. When using
authentication, it is possible to set up different web access policies by user or group membership, using a
central user directory. Another primary driver for using authentication is that of user tracking, so that when a user
violates an acceptable-use policy, Cisco WSA can match the user with the violation instead of just using an IP
address. The last reason for authentication of web sessions is for compliance reporting.
Cisco WSA supports two different authentication protocols: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and
NT LAN Manager (NTLM). Because most organizations have an Active Directory server, they use NTLM. Single
Sign-On is also only available when using NTLM.
When Cisco WSA is deployed in transparent mode with authentication enabled and a transaction requires
authentication, Cisco WSA asks for authentication credentials from the client application. However, not all client
applications support authentication, so they have no way to prompt users to provide their user names and
passwords. These applications might have issues when Cisco WSA is deployed in transparent mode because
the application tries to run non-HTTP traffic over port 80 and cannot handle an attempt by Cisco WSA to
authenticate the connection.
Here is a partial list of applications that do not support authentication (these are subject to change as newer
code versions are released):
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Adobe Acrobat Updates
• Microsoft Windows Update
• Outlook Exchange (when trying to retrieve Internet-based pictures for email messages)
If applications need to access a particular URL, then it is possible to create an identity based on a custom User
Agent category that does not require authentication. When this happens, the client application is not asked for
authentication.
The first step in setting up authentication is to build an authentication realm. A realm defines how authentication
is supposed to occur.
In this deployment, a realm was built for NTLM authentication to the Active Directory server.
Step 1: Navigate to Network > Authentication, and then click on Add Realm.
Step 2: From the Authentication Server Type and Scheme drop-down select Active Directory
Step 3: Specify the Active Directory Server and the Active Directory Domain, and then click Join Domain.
Step 4: In the Computer Account Credentials dialog box, enter the Active Directory domain administrator
credentials (or ask an administrator to enter them), and then click Create Account.
The DNS entries for the server must be added, and the server must have successfully
joined the AD domain before proceeding.
Step 5: On the Add Realm page, click Start Test. This tests the NTLM connection to the Active Directory
domain.
Step 6: In the Test Authentication Realm Settings box, monitor the results.
Step 7: When the test is completed successfully, click Submit, and then click Commit Changes.
Step 8: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
Next you configure identity groups. Identities are based on the identity of the client or the transaction itself.
Step 9: Navigate to Web Security Manager > Identities, and then click Add Identity.
You create two different sample identities: Exempt Subnets and Exempt User Agents.
Step 10: On the Add Identity page, in the Name box, enter Exempt Subnets.
Step 11: In the Define Members by Subnet box, enter the subnet(s) that you want to allow to access the Internet
without authentication.
Tech Tip
Performing this action defeats the purpose of running authentication for that IP
address, and log information from Cisco WSA will never have authentication data from
employees using that IP address. Even so, taking this action may be required in certain
cases and is given here as an example of how to change the operational policy of
Cisco WSA.
Step 14: On the Add Identity page, in the Name box, enter Exempt User Agents, and then click Advanced.
Step 15: In the Advanced section, next to User Agents, click None Selected.
Step 16: On the Membership by User Agent page, Under Common User Agents click Others.
Step 17: Under Others, select Microsoft Windows Update and Adobe Acrobat Updater.
Tech Tip
Selecting these agents means that when connections over HTTP with those User
Agents in the HTTP Header are seen, no authentication is requested.
Step 18: In the Custom User Agents box, enter any application that uses HTTP and is failing authentication, and
then click Done.
Tech Tip
If it is not possible to enter the application that is failing, then a specific custom URL
category can be built and then used in the Advanced tab for URL categories.
Step 20: On the Identities page, at the bottom of the Client/Transaction Identity Definitions section, click Global
Identity Policy.
This is the identity group for anybody who does not meet one of the preceding two groups you just built.
Since those groups were built for the purpose of not authenticating, change the global identity to authenticate
everybody else.
Step 21: On the Identity Policies: Global Group page, in the Identification and Authentication list, choose
Authenticate Users.
Step 22: In the Select a Realm or Sequence list, choose All Realms.
Step 23: In the Select a Scheme list, choose Use NTLMSSP or Basic, and then click Submit.
Step 25: In the Uncommitted Changes pane, enter a comment to describe the change, and then click Commit
Changes.
It is now possible to test the deployment to ensure that the system is enforcing policy as expected, that all
applications and processes work as before, and that the data that the system is logging meets all of your needs
or requirements.
Because the appliance itself stores data for only a limited amount of time, you need to use the Cisco Content
Security Management Appliance in order to allow for long-term storage and reporting of events from Cisco WSA.
Consult with your Cisco account team or your trusted partner for more information on the Cisco Content Security
Management Appliance and long-term reporting.
Troubleshooting
To determine why Cisco WSA took the action it did on a web connection to a specific site from a specific user,
an administrator can run the Trace tool by navigating to System Administration > Policy Trace.
By filling out the tool, you can test a specific URL to find out what the expected response from the appliance
would be if it processed the URL. This information is especially useful if some of the more advanced features are
used.
Summary
You have now installed Cisco WSA. A basic configuration has been applied, and the device can be inserted into
the network and receive redirects from the Cisco ASA. A default policy has been built that allows an organization
to set up access controls for HTTP and HTTPS. A policy has been built to configure HTTPS decryption. And
authentication has been set up to allow Cisco WSA to authenticate users and tie usernames with the access
controls in the logs.
A more detailed discussion about specific implementation of policy should be initiated with a trusted partner or
Cisco account representative.
Reader Tip
For additional Cisco WSA user documentation, see the documentation here:
http://www.cisco.com/web/ironport/index.html
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