Cisco® Secure Access Control System (ACS) ties together an enterprise's network access policy and identity strategy. Cisco Secure ACS is the world's most trusted enterprise access and policy platform, deployed by about 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies.
A core component of the Cisco TrustSec® solution, Cisco Secure ACS is a highly sophisticated policy platform providing RADIUS and TACACS+ services. It supports the increasingly complex policies needed to meet today's new demands for access control management and compliance. Cisco Secure ACS provides central management of access policies for device administration and wireless, wired 802.1x, and remote (VPN) network access scenarios. Figure 1 shows the new Cisco 3415 Secure Access Control System appliance, based on the Cisco UCS C220 M3 platform. Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 will support the Cisco 3415 and 1121 Secure Access Control System appliances.
Figure 1. Cisco 3415 Secure Access Control System
Product Overview
With the ever-increasing reliance on enterprise networks to perform daily job routines and the increasing number of methods available to access today's networks, security breaches and uncontrolled user access are of primary concern among enterprises. Network security officers and administrators need solutions that support flexible authentication and authorization policies that are tied not only to a user's identity, but also to context such as the network access type, time of day the access is requested, and the security of the machine used to access the network. Further, there is a stronger need to effectively audit use of network devices, monitor activities of device admins for corporate compliance, and provide broader visibility and control over device access policies across the network.
Cisco Secure ACS is a highly scalable, high-performance access policy system that centralizes device administration, authentication, and user access policy and reduces the management and support burden for these functions.
Features and Benefits
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 serves as a Policy Administration Point (PAP) and Policy Decision Point (PDP) for policy-based network device access control, offering a large set of identity management capabilities, including:
• Unique, flexible, and granular device administration in IPv4 and IPv6 networks with full auditing and reporting capabilities as required for standards compliance
• A powerful, attribute-driven rules-based policy model that addresses complex policy needs in a flexible manner
• A lightweight, web-based graphical user interface (GUI) with intuitive navigation and workflow accessible from both IPv4 and IPv6 clients
• Integrated advanced monitoring, reporting, and troubleshooting capabilities for maximum control and visibility
• Improved integration with external identity and policy databases, including Windows Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)-accessible databases, simplifying policy configuration and maintenance
• A distributed deployment model that enables large-scale deployments and provides a highly available solution
The Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 rules-based policy model supports the application of different authorization rules under different conditions; thus, policy is contextual and not limited to authorization determined by a single group membership. New integration capabilities allow information in external databases to be directly referenced in access policy rules, and attributes can be used both in policy conditions and authorization rules.
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 features centralized collection and reporting of activity and system health information for full manageability of distributed deployments. It supports proactive operations such as monitoring and diagnostics, and reactive operations such as reporting and troubleshooting. Advanced features include a deployment-wide session monitor, threshold-based notifications, entitlement reports, and diagnostic tools.
Table 1 lists the key features and benefits of Cisco Secure ACS 5.4.
Table 1. Key Features and Benefits of Cisco Secure ACS 5.4
Feature
Benefit
Complete access control and confidentiality solution
ACS can be deployed with other Cisco TrustSec components, including policy components, infrastructure enforcement components, endpoint components, and professional services.
AAA protocols
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports two distinct protocols for authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA). Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports RADIUS for network access control and TACACS+ for network device access control. Cisco Secure ACS is a single system for enforcing access policy across the network as well as network device configuration and change management as required for standards compliance such as PCI compliance. Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports AAA features for TACACS+ based device administration on both IPv4 and IPv6 networks.
Database options
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports an integrated user repository in addition to supporting integration with existing external identity repositories such as Windows Active Directory and LDAP servers, and RSA Token Server. This includes use of multiple LDAP servers for an ACS cluster as well as connecting each ACS node (instance) to a different AD domain. Multiple databases can be used concurrently for maximum flexibility in enforcing access policy with identity store sequences. In addition, it is possible to add ACS administrators stored in external AD and LDAP databases and authenticate them via those identity stores in Cisco Secure ACS 5.4.
Authentication protocols
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports a wide range of authentication protocols, including PAP, MS-CHAP, Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)-MD5, Protected EAP (PEAP), EAP-Flexible Authentication via Secure Tunneling (FAST), EAP-Transport Layer Security (TLS), and PEAP-TLS to support your authentication requirements. It also supports TACACS+ authentication with CHAP/MSCHAP protocols and PAP-based password change when using TACACS+ and EAP-GTC with LDAP servers. In addition, Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 adds support for Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) to check if certificates used by some of those listed protocols (like EAP-TLS) have been revoked or are still valid.
Access policies
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports a rules-based, attribute-driven policy model that provides greatly increased power and flexibility for access control policies that may include authentication protocol requirements, device restrictions, time of day restrictions, posture validation, and other access requirements. Cisco Secure ACS may apply downloadable access control lists (dACLs), VLAN assignments, and other authorization parameters. Version 5.4 can also disable user accounts within the internal database based on expiration on a user basis. Furthermore, it allows comparison between the values of any two attributes that are available to Cisco Secure ACS to be used in identity, group-mapping, and authorization policy rules.
Centralized management
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports a completely redesigned lightweight, web-based GUI that is easy to use. An efficient, incremental replication scheme quickly propagates changes from primary to secondary systems, providing centralized control over distributed deployments. Software upgrades are also managed through the GUI and can be distributed by the primary system to secondary instances.
Support for larger ACS deployments
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports up to 21 instances (1 primary and 20 secondaries) in a single ACS cluster, compared to 10 instances officially supported by earlier software versions.
Programmatic Interface
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 supports a programmatic interface for Create/Read/Update/Delete operations on users and identity groups, network devices, and hosts (endpoints) within the internal database.
Monitoring and troubleshooting
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 includes an integrated monitoring, reporting, and troubleshooting component that is accessible through the web-based GUI. This tool provides maximum visibility into configured policies and authentication and authorization activities across the network. Logs are viewable and exportable for use in other systems as well.
Proxy services
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 can function as a RADIUS or TACACS+ proxy for an external AAA server by forwarding incoming AAA requests from a network access device (NAD) to the external server and forwarding responses from that server back to the NAD initiating such requests. Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 also adds the capability to add and/or overwrite RADIUS attributes within proxied AAA requests sent to the external AAA server.
Platform options
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 is available as a closed and hardened Linux-based appliance or as a software operating system image for VMware ESX/ESXi 5.0
System Requirements
Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 is available as a one rack-unit (1-RU), security-hardened, Linux-based appliance with preinstalled Cisco Secure ACS software on the new Cisco 3415 Secure ACS appliance as well as the legacy Cisco 1121 Secure ACS appliance. It is also available as a software operating system image for installation in a virtual machine on VMware ESX/ESXi 5.0. Table 2 and Table 3 list the system specifications for the Cisco 1121 and 3415 Secure ACS appliances, respectively. For VMware ESX system requirements, please review Table 4. Note that ACS 5.4 adds support for VMware Tools.
2 CPUs (dual CPU, Xeon, Core2 Duo, or 2 single CPUs)
System memory
4 GB RAM
Hard disk requirement
User-configurable between 60 GB and 750 GB (minimum 150 GB is recommended)
NIC
Network NIC (1 Gbps) available for ACS application use
Ordering Information
Cisco Secure ACS products are available for purchase through regular Cisco sales and distribution channels worldwide. Please refer to the Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 product bulletin for Cisco Secure ACS 5.4 product numbers and ordering information.
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For More Information
Please check the Cisco Secure ACS homepage at http://www.cisco.com/go/acs for the latest information about Cisco Secure ACS.
