Tech Support > Computer Hardware > Routers > Using Cisco ACS to authenticate against LDAP through SSL
Using Cisco ACS to authenticate against LDAP through SSL
Posted by Silvio Arcangeli on October 20th, 2003


Hi everybody,
I'm setting up an authentication system for an intranet, and I have some
problems configuring it, I hope someone can help me out.

We're using Cisco ACS Secure Server 3.2, and we want to perform the
authentications over our LDAP server (actually, it is a virtual LDAP, from
Radiant Logic, we have to deal with several data sources).

The LDAP server is running fine, I tested it with a Java client, and it
works both with SSL and with clear-text connections.

With the Cisco ACS I made it to perform clear-text authentications, but when
it comes to setting it up to use SSL it seems I can't find a way to have it
run...

ACS requires a copy of the LDAP server's cert7.db to connect to it through
SSL. Since my LDAP server is not Netscape, it doesn't provide any cert7.db
file. So I downloaded the NSS tools (a 2002 version, since the last ones are
generating cert8.db, and ACS won't accept it).
Using the tools created a db file, and stuffed my certificate into it
(giving it "TC" trust arguments for SSL authentications), but ACS is still
not working...
When I try to authenticate it fails, and the reports just say "External DB
reports error condition". I checked the logs of my LDAP server, and it seems
it correctly receives a bind (I can see "connect/disconnect" pairs on the
SSL port each time ACS tries to authenticate the user).

Does anybody have a clue on what could be the cause for this problem?
I really don't know what to do about it...

Silvio Arcangeli



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