OAuth2- TOTPRadius VPN Portal - Easy and secure access to corporate VPN

Starting from v0.2.5 TOTPRadius provides new ways of connecting to your corporate VPN systems based on L2TP, such as Meraki Client VPN or Fortinet VPN . The new web-based VPN portal allows logging in using additional methods, such as FIDO Security keys, both in Passwodless mode (if FIDO2 keys are used) and using the keys as the second factor (allowing to use legacy U2F FIDO hardware), as well as Azure AD SSO via OAuth2 protocol. VPN entries require no special VPN client, although T2VPN connection helper apps are recommended to minimize user actions. The VPN interface is based on a web server running on the same appliance as the TOTPRadius administration portal, but using a different port. This is done to isolate the administrative portal from the public internet facing user portal. As a general recommendation, the administrative web portal should be accessible only inside the network and protected by the firewall rules, limiting web and ssh access to IP addresses inside the network belonging to administrators' machines and RADIUS port (UDP 1812) to the VPN appliance only.

Demo

The video below show the user experience when using Oauth2 VPN portal. There is no user login procedure shown as the user account used in this demo has already logged on to Office 365 web interface, therefore SSO is used.

The network setup and required firewall rules for different usage modes of TOTPRadius are described in this article. It is also important to set-up an FQDN and HTTPS web certificate for the VPN Web portal.

This guide describes how to configure TOTPRadius VPN Web portal as an OAuth Resource and Azure AD as an External OAuth Authorization Server to facilitate secure access to the VPN resources connected to TOTPRadius. Important to mention that the account security in this configuration mode fully relies on Azure AD Configuration, therefore it is highly recommended that you have MFA or Passwordless enabled for accounts allowed to access this resource.

Configure the OAuth Resource in Azure AD

1. Navigate to the Microsoft Azure Portal and authenticate.

2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory.

3. Click on App Registrations.

4. Click on New Registration.

In the New Registration dialog, fill the form as shown on the example below, and click on “Register” to complete the action

After the App Registration is done, the Overview of the object will be shown (see example below).

Note down the 2 IDs shown on this page (this can be retrieved at a later stage as well):

- Application (client) ID

- Directory (tenant) ID

These values will be entered later into the TOTPRadius configuration settings.

In the next step we will create a Client secret.

1. Click on Certificates & secrets and then New client secret.

2. Add a description of the secret.

3. Select never expire. For testing purposes, select secrets that never expire.

After the Client secret is created, copy its value and note down. This will also be used in TOTPRadius configuration.

Configure the OAuth2 Settings in TOTPRadius

Log in to TOTPRadius admin portal and navigate to General Settings section. Scroll down to Oauth2 VPN Portal settings section and fill the values as illustrated below:

The settings shown on this example are explained in the table below:

Setting	Description and possible values
Oauth2 interface	Enable or disables Azure AD Oauth2 SSO interface for VPN Portal
Oauth2 VPN settings	A configuration file template used to generate the connection files. The one on the screenshot above is showing the connectivity for Meraki Client VPN
Oauth2 only	If this setting is enabled, TOTP-based VPN access will be denied. Please note that this does not restrict FIDO2 login functionality (it has to be controlled separately)
Oauth2 client id	Client ID as recorded when creating App Registration with Azure
Oauth2 tenant id	Tenant ID as recorded when creating App Registration with Azure
Oauth2 client secret	Client Secret as recorded when creating App Registration with Azure
Oauth2 redirect URI	The URL of oauth.php script. Should match the URL specified in App Registration

Once the settings are configured, you can test by visiting the configured FQDN. The OAuth2 interface is located in "oauth" folder (i.e. https://vpn-portal-fqdn/oauth/index.php)

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User restrictions

As mentioned before, restricting users to access the OAuth2 VPN portal can be done via Azure AD App Registrations settings. The Users and Groups settings are located in a different interface and can be accessed by clicking on the App's link under "Managed application in local directory"

Navigate to Properties, then set "User assignment required?" to "Yes"

From the Application management interface, choose Users and Groups and add the users allowed to access this interface. Please note that groups are only available for assignment with Azure AD Premium  P2 or EM+S E5 Licenses. With lower plans you can assign individual users to the application.