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RWHuskies
New Member
August 15, 2024
Question

Fortigate Radius Server - Can't contact RADIUS server - Local Freeradius Server

  • August 15, 2024
  • 4 replies
  • 11263 views

We have a Fortigate 200E, running firmware 7.6. IP address of 10.10.0.1 (Internal Software Switch).

I deployed a Freeradius Server, IP 10.10.0.11, for RADIUS based 802.1x WPA-Enterprise authentication for Wifi. The Radius Server is up and running, I can run a radtest from my local machine on the network behind the Fortigate and get successful connections.

This issue is when I go to add the FreeRadius information to the Radius Server section on the Fortigate, I am constantly hit with "Can't contact RADIUS server". My secret and IP are correct. I have tried to make a firewall allow rule from internal to internal, source all, and destination 10.10.0.11 with Radius services, but it didn't make any difference.

I've gone through all the Googling I can, tried setting the Source-ip to the Fortigate, nothing I do is letting the Fortigate connect to the Radius Server.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

4 replies

Toshi_Esumi
SuperUser
SuperUser
August 15, 2024

Have you tried "radiusd -X" debug mode with the freeRADIUS? What is your freeRADIUS saying about the reason of auth failure?
I recently posted below because it was rejected with an error "missing mandatory attribute".
https://community.fortinet.com/t5/Support-Forum/RADIUS-attribute-Message-Authenticator/td-p/327120

Toshi


RWHuskies
RWHuskiesAuthor
New Member
August 15, 2024

Ya, I've tried that and debug mode show nothing even trying to connect from the Fortigate. It's like the Fortigate isn't routing to the internal IP at all. I'm seeing nothing in the Fortigate logs either.

ozkanaltas
Valued Contributor III
August 15, 2024

Hello @RWHuskies ,

 

In addition to what @Toshi_Esumi  said, have you tried entering source-ip in the radius configuration?

 

config user radius edit <YOUR_RADIUS_OBJECT_NAME> set source-ip <x.x.x.x> end
RWHuskies
RWHuskiesAuthor
New Member
August 15, 2024

Yes, I've set the source-ip to the internal interface IP (same as the Fortigate 10.10.0.1) with no change in behaviour. freeradius -X debug mode shows no attempts from the Fortigate. I'm seeing no calls from the Fortigate to the radius server in the Fortigate logs either.

tpatel
Staff
Staff
August 15, 2024

Hello @RWHuskies

 

Can you please run sniffer on fortigate for your radius server and also do packet capture on outgoing interface to check packet. 

Please run below sniffer command. 
# diag sniffer packet any "host x.x.x.x" 4 0 l     ---> x.x.x.x should be your radius server ip address. 
Do a packet capture on connected interface and checked for radius request. 

Please click on below link and reference document. 

https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Technical-Tip-Radius-authentication-troubleshooting/ta-p/196192

RWHuskies
RWHuskiesAuthor
New Member
August 15, 2024

Hi all.

Okay so I was looking for the logs in the wrong place. The Fortigate is trying to connect the the radius server on port 13777 instead of port 8192. If I manually change the port on the radius server to use port 13777, I get a connection and the Radius Server works.

Why would the Fortigate be trying to use port 13777 instead of 8192?

ozkanaltas
Valued Contributor III
August 16, 2024

Hi @RWHuskies ,

 

Normally FortiGate uses port 1812 by default. What you experienced is interesting, to be honest.

 

Is there any device that does NAT?

 

However, can you revert the configuration to its previous state and check the port of the requests coming out of Fortigate with the following sniffer command?

 

diag sniffer packet any "host x.x.x.x" 4 a