{"id":43196,"date":"2019-12-03T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=43196"},"modified":"2024-11-14T12:31:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:31:37","slug":"mac-radius-authentication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/mac-radius-authentication","title":{"rendered":"RADIUS Authentication for Macs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Network security is of the utmost importance as the number of reported data breaches continues to rise. Implementing the proper measures can be harder for certain organizations than others, especially those experiencing firsthand the rise of macOS usage<\/a> in the modern enterprise. As such, these sysadmins and network engineers are looking for ways to optimize RADIUS authentication for Macs in order to securely connect to WiFi and VPN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will discuss what RADIUS is<\/a> and how it is used for authentication, as well as how RADIUS is used to authenticate Mac network access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we dive into Mac specifics, let\u2019s look at the RADIUS protocol overall. RADIUS stands for the Remote Access Dial In User Service. A RADIUS server works on behalf of a client to authenticate user network access via their credentials stored in an identity provider (IdP). The IdP then takes the credentials shared through RADIUS to ensure that a user accessing the network is who they say they are and can be trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Specifically with wireless networks, one of the more popular ways that RADIUS is used is to require users to input their unique set of credentials instead of a shared WPA key, making said authentication tighter than standard WiFi security. This process makes it easy to combine multi-factor authentication (MFA) and RADIUS<\/a> for VPN security as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts of RADIUS authentication<\/a> generally so that we can understand it and apply it for Macs. The following graphic details the process for RADIUS authentication on port 802.1x: <\/p>\n\n\nWhat is RADIUS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
RADIUS Authentication Process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n