02-26-2024 05:53 AM - edited 02-26-2024 05:55 AM
how to use smart card authentication for network devices access?
i searched SecureCRT and putty CAC can do
but which of these software are the most secure?
why most company did not apply these authentication?
Some web said using ISE, some use tacacs , which is authentic way?
which smart card and smart card reader is the most secure and comply with military standard and ISO and FIPS?
02-26-2024 01:13 PM
At a high level, any Authentication (authN) method that is NOT password based, will still require a AAA server to perform Authorization (authZ).
e.g. imagine you connect to a Cisco IOS device using SSH, and your authN method is
I have only tested method 1 so far. Why most companies don't use public key authN? Probably because it's a lot of overhead and most companies don't have the key distribution software (or skills) in place to make this easy - but in public cloud it's usually the default authN method. And cert authN makes life even more complicated, because you're dealing with entities (certs) that have an expiry date - and someone has to ensure that these things are maintained. Or you'll have a very bad day.
I would imagine that smart cards operate similarly to X.509 certs - and that each device in the network must be configured to trust that type of authentication. But the exact steps of how it's done, is unclear to me.
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