Failover exec and command authorization

[diogo]

Hi, got into a dead end here. I have a pair of ASA firewalls running as active/standby. I'd like to use the 'failover exec' to issue commands on the standby firewall via the active one. This shouldn't be a problem, but we have AAA command authorization configured. And when the active ASA tries to issue a command on the stadby ASA, it gets a 'authorization denied' message. At the ACS we see the auth request being denied, the ASA sends the request using the 'enable_1' user, instead of using the same user connected to the active ASA.

Any clues on how to go around this?

thanks!

[smalkeric]

Remote command execution lets you send commands entered at the command line to a specific failover peer.

Because configuration commands are replicated from the active unit or context to the standby unit or context, you can use the failover exec command to enter configuration commands on the correct unit, no matter which unit you are logged-in to. For example, if you are logged-in to the standby unit, you can use the failover exec active command to send configuration changes to the active unit. Those changes are then replicated to the standby unit. Do not use the failover exec command to send configuration commands to the standby unit or context; those configuration changes are not replicated to the active unit and the two configurations will no longer be synchronized.

To send a command to a failover peer, perform the steps given in the below URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa80/configuration/guide/failover.html#wp1154924

The below URL helps you in configuring the Active/standby failover:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa80/configuration/guide/failover.html#wp1058096

[diogo]

Thanks for the reply, but you didn't really address the issue.

[Elie Bassil]

Hello,

Most probably you are being affected by this bug:

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCti22636

Symptom:

Currently Standby ASA uses "enable_1"  username for authorization requests when "failover exec standby" command  is run on the Active ASA in failover pair. This leads to authorization  failures on TACACS+ server unless the "enable_1" user is created there  and privilege 15 is granted to this user.

Conditions:

This is a limitation of all software releases where the "failover exec standby" feature is implemented.

Workaround:

The workaround is:

- create a user account "enable_1" on TACACS+ server with any random password;

- grant "privilege = 15" and full access on all commands to this user.