Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Handbook

5-2. Managing Users with a Local Database

You can configure a firewall to control user access by defining users in its local database. This approach assigns usernames and passwords to each end user, allowing access rights and accounting trails to be granular and specific.

Each user must use a unique username when accessing or passing through the firewall. For administrative users, privilege levels can be defined to authorize their ability to access firewall commands. User activity can also be tracked and identified by the unique usernames.

You can define usernames locally on the firewall if external user management servers (RADIUS, TACACS+, and so on) are unavailable or impractical. However, local user management does have some limitations. For ...