Skip to Main Content
RADIUS
book

RADIUS

by Jonathan Hassell
October 2002
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
206 pages
8h 30m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from RADIUS

RADIUS Hints

An administrator can configure a RADIUS server to grant some services by default to any authenticated user, while other configurations might permit only the services requested in the client’s request packet to be authorized. RADIUS can be set up to handle service authorizations in countless different ways. The RADIUS RFC thus specifies information that can be included in a RADIUS packet header sent from a client to a server that “hints” to the server which explicit services it wants. These bits of information are called RADIUS hints.

RADIUS hints behave differently based on the way an administrator sets up his RADIUS client gear to authorize transactions. The RFC states that the receiving RADIUS server can choose whether to grant the hints requests if doing so would not violate the local security setup. If the RADIUS server chooses not to grant the hints request, though, it is also allowed under the RFC specification to authorize a service that can be granted based on the user’s access policy. If it can’t do this, then it must terminate and disconnect the session.

Hints are designed primarily for environments in which the RADIUS server has partial control of the resources needed to provision service for the client. For instance, the client may request a specific, static IP as paid for in her monthly billing by sending a hint in the request. The NAS gear, having obtained explicit authorization from the RADIUS server (eliminating the extra transaction hop to obtain ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols, 2nd Edition

TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols, 2nd Edition

Kevin R. Fall, W. Richard Stevens
TCP/IP Guide

TCP/IP Guide

Charles M. Kozierok

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596003226Errata Page