ClearPass & Active Directory: Disabled User Accounts

Today we're testing Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager to show that a disabled user in Active Directory will not be successfully authenticated when connecting to a WLAN using 802.1X

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​In ClearPass it is very easy to follow and deep-dive into the information of all access request attempts using the Access Tracker. Access Tracker can be accessed from Monitoring —> Live Monitoring in the left hand navigation menu. Access Tracker has a wealth of information which can be viewed in multiple ways and is so important to a ClearPass administrator that it deserves its very own browser tab when you are making changes to and testing new configuration in ClearPass.

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Here in Access Tracker we can see an access event where user “matt" requests and is granted access with a resulting enforcement profile of [Allow Access Profile]. You can see the Authentication method is EAP-PEA with EAP-MSCHAPv2 which is common in a Windows Domain, the authentication source is the AD to which the ClearPass server has been joined. The Authorisation source is "WFHX AD” which is the same domain but it has been setup in such a way that ClearPass can access attributes of domain accounts (both computer and user).

Here is another access event showing the same user “matt” requesting access but being denied. The domain account for “matt” was disabled. You can see the authentication source is AD but the Authorisation source is not used this time as the process does not progress beyond the rejected authentication attempt.

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