Introduction

User authentication is one of the core principles of security. Juniper firewalls have an extensive set of user authentication capabilities that provide you with many options to strengthen the security of your network. Traditionally, user authentication has been used as a tool to help identify and validate the identity of a particular user. Modern networks demand much more than simple user identification, however. With the security of your network on the line, you have a lot to lose by not verifying and restricting who is accessing your resources. Juniper has recognized and addressed the difficulties that administrators face trying to harden their networks, while balancing the needs of users and remaining flexible.

At first glance, some administrators may feel overwhelmed with the number of authentication options the Juniper firewall is capable of. Not only does Juniper provide you with its own internal database, you can also integrate other standardized and proprietary authentication systems. The wide range of capabilities that you have at your disposal will enable you to harden your perimeter, and also provide peace of mind that you can track and audit network activity.

In this chapter, we will begin by discussing the different types of user accounts. Second, we will cover the different authentication servers that can be used to authenticate users through different access methods. Third, we will delve into policy-based user authentication, which will enable you to control every aspect of user access to your network. We will follow our policy-based authentication discussion with an...