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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

Incoming Request Passwords Are Gibberish

Gibberish is usually indicative of an incorrectly formed or mismatched shared secret, the phrase shared between the server and the RADIUS client machine and used to perform secure encryption on packets. To identify the problem, run the server in debugging mode, as described previously. The first password printed to the console screen will be inside a RADIUS attribute (e.g., Password = "rneis\dfkjdf7482odf“) and the second will be in a logged message (e.g., Login failed [rneis/dfkjdf7482odf]). If the data after the slash is gibberish—ensure it’s not just a really secure password—then the shared secret is not consistent between the server and the RADIUS client. This may even be due to hidden characters, so to be completely sure both are the same, delete and re-enter the secret on both machines.

The gibberish may also result from a shared secret that is too long. FreeRADIUS limits the secret length to 16 characters, since some NAS equipment has limitations on the length of the secret yet don’t make it evident in error logs or the documentation.

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596003226Errata Page