Full support for Cisco AnyConnect on Android is provided on devices running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) through the latest release of Android.

Cisco AnyConnect on Kindle is available from Amazon for the Kindle Fire HD devices, and the New Kindle Fire. AnyConnect for Kindle is equivalent in functionality to the AnyConnect for Android package.

Per App VPN is supported in managed and unmanaged environments. In a managed environment using Samsung KNOX MDM, Samsung devices running Android 4.3 or later with Samsung Knox 2.0, are required. When using Per App in an unmanaged environment, the generic Android methods are used.

For the Network Visibility Module (NVM) capabilities, Samsung devices that are running Samsung Knox 2.8 or later (including 3.2), which requires Android 7.0 or later, are required. For configuration of NVM, the AnyConnect Profile Editor from AnyConnect 4.4.3 or later is also required. Earlier releases do not support mobile NVM configurations.

The following permissions are declared in the Android manifest file for AnyConnect operation:

I received a tun.ko error message

A tun.ko module is required if it is not already compiled into the kernel. If it is not included on the device or compiled with the kernel, obtain or build it for your corresponding device kernel and place it in the /data/local/kernel_modules/ directory.

I cannot edit/delete some connection entries

Your administrator defined these connection entries in the AnyConnect Profile. See Viewing and Managing the AnyConnect profile for instructions on deleting these profiles.

Connection timeouts and unresolved hosts

Internet connectivity issues, a low-cell signal level, and a congested network resource are typical causes of timeouts and unresolved host errors. Try moving to an area with a stronger signal or use WiFi. If a Wi-Fi network is within reach, try using your device Settings app to establish a connection to it first. Retrying multiple times in response to timeouts often results in success.

Certificate-based authentication does not work

Check the validity and expiration of the certificate if you succeeded with it before. To do so, go to the AnyConnect home window, long-press the connection entry, and tap Certificate. The Certificates window lists all certificates. Long-press the certificate name and tap View Certificate Details. Check with your administrator to make sure that you are using the appropriate certificate for the connection.

Error connecting, device working OK

Ask your administrator if the VPN secure gateway is configured and licensed to permit mobile connections.

Cannot connect to ASA, unresolvable host error

Use an Internet browser to check the network connection. To verify network connectivity, go to https://vpn.example.com, where vpn.example.com is the URL of the VPN secure gateway.

AnyConnect package fails to install from the Market

Ensure that the device is listed as one of the Supported Android Devices.

“Installation Error: Unknown reason -8”

If you attempt to install a brand-specific AnyConnect package on devices that are not supported, they receive this message. Review the list of supported Android devices and instructions for installing or upgrading AnyConnect to download the proper AnyConnect package for your device.

AnyConnect error, “Could not obtain the necessary permissions to run this application. This device does not support AnyConnect.”

AnyConnect does not work on this device. Review the list of supported Android devices and instructions for installing or upgrading AnyConnect to download the proper AnyConnect package for your device.

Cannot email logs because of a network connectivity issue

Try another Internet-accessible network. Save the log messages in a draft email message if you do not have network connectivity or you need to reset the device.

AnyConnect frequently connects by itself

This may be due to your Trusted Network Detection / Automatic VPN Policy. Disable the TND application preference in the AnyConnect settings to turn this functionality off.

Authentication using a one time password is not working

Due to an Android issue, when pasting text from the clipboard, a space is inserted in front of the text. In AnyConnect, when copying text such as a one time password, the user has to delete this erroneous white space.

• The ASA does not provide distributions and updates for AnyConnect for Android. They are available only on Google Play.

• AnyConnect for Android supports only the Network Visibility Module, it does not support any other AnyConnect modules.

• The Android device supports no more than one AnyConnect profile, which is the last one received from a headend. However, a profile can consist of multiple connection entries.

• If users attempt to install AnyConnect on devices that are not supported, they receive the pop-up messageInstallation Error: Unknown reason -8. This message is generated by the Android OS.

• When users have an AnyConnect widget on their home screen, the AnyConnect services are automatically started (but not connected) regardless of the "Launch at startup" preference.

• AnyConnect for Android requires UTF-8 character encoding for extended ASCII characters when using pre-fill from client certificates. The client certificate must be in UTF-8 if you want to use prefill, per the instructions in KB-890772 and KB-888180.

• AnyConnect blocks voice calls if it is sending or receiving VPN traffic over an EDGE connection per the inherent nature of EDGE and other early radio technology.

• Some known file compression utilities do not successfully decompress log bundles packaged with the use of the AnyConnect Send Log button. As a workaround, use the native utilities on Windows and Mac OS X to decompress AnyConnect log files.

• DHE Incompatibility

  With the introduction of DHE cipher support in AnyConnect release 4.6, incompatibility issues result in ASA versions before ASA 9.2. If you are using DHE ciphers with ASA releases earlier than 9.2, you must disable DHE ciphers on those ASA versions.

• IPv6 on public and private interfaces.

  IPv6 is supported on both private and public transports using AnyConnect 4.05015 and later, on Android 5 and later. With this combination the following is now allowed: IPv4 over an IPv6 tunnel, IPv6 over an IPv6 tunnel.

  This is in addtion to the previously allowed tunnel configuratons on earlier AnyConnect and Android releases: IPv4 over an IPv4 tunnel, and IPv6 over an IPv4 tunnel.

  Note	Due to Google issue 65572, IPv6 over IPv4 does not work on Android 4.4. You must use Android 5 or later.

• Battery saver and AnyConnect:

  • Android 5.0 introduced battery saver capabilities that block background network connectivity on your device. When battery saver is enabled, AnyConnect will transition to the Paused state if it is in the background. To work around this on Android 5.0, users may turn off battery saver via the device settings: Settings -> Battery -> Battery saver or from the notification bar.

  • In Android 6.0+, when AnyConnect transitions to the Paused state as a result of battery saver, you see a popup with the option to make AnyConnect part of the allowed list from battery saver mode. Making AnyConnect part of the allowed list provides a battery savings without impacting AnyConnect’s ability to run in the background.

  • Once AnyConnect is paused due to the batter saver, a manual reconnect is necessary to bring AnyConnect out of the Paused state, regardless of your action to turn off battery saver or to add AnyConnect to the allowed list.

• Split DNS does not work on any Android 4.4 device, and also does not work on Samsung 5.x Android devices. For Samsung devices, the only workaround is to connect to a group with split DNS disabled. On other devices you must upgrade to Android 5.x to receive the fix for this problem.

  This is due to a known issue that is present in Android 4.4 ( Issue #64819), fixed in Android 5.x, but not incorporated into Samsung 5.x android devices.

• Due to a bug in Android 5.x (Google Issue #85758, Cisco Issue # CSCus38925), if the AnyConnect app is closed from the recent apps screen it may not operate properly. To restore proper operation, terminate AnyConnect in Settings and then restart it.

• On Samsung mobile devices the Settings > Wi-Fi > Smart network switch allows switching from WIFI to LTE to maintain a stable Internet connection (when the Wi-Fi connection is not optimum). This also results in a pause and reconnect of the active VPN tunnel. Cisco recommends turning this off, since it may result in continuous reconnects.

• On Android 5.0 (Lollipop), which supports multiple active users, the VPN connection tunnels data for a single user only, not for all users on the device. Background data flow may be occurring in the clear.

• Due to a bug in Android 4.3.1(Google Issue #62073), users using the AnyConnect ICS+ package cannot enter non-fully qualified domain names. For example, users cannot type "internalhost", they must type "internalhost.company.com."

• The AT&T firmware updates on HTC One to Android 4.3 (software version: 3.17.502.3) do not support "HTC AnyConnect." Customers must uninstall "HTC AnyConnect", and install "AnyConnect ICS+." (HTC AnyConnect will work on the international edition, with software version of 3.22.1540.1). Check your software version on your device at Settings > About > Software information > Software number.

• We are pleased to report that Google Issue #70916, VPN connections will fail to connect if the administrator has set the MTU for Android tunnels lower than 1280, has been resolved in Android 5.0 (Lollipop). The following problem information is provided for reference:

  Due to a regression in Android 4.4.3,( Google Issue #70916, Cisco CSCup24172), VPN connections will fail to connect if the administrator has set the MTU for Android tunnels lower than 1280. This issue has been reported to Google and will require a new version of the OS to correct the regression introduced in Android 4.4.3. To workaround this problem, ensure that the head-end administrator has not configured the tunnel MTU to be lower than 1280.

  When encountered, the message displayed to the end user is: System configuration settings could not be applied. A VPN connection will not be established, and AnyConnect debug logs will report:

  
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): IPCInteractionThread: NCSS: General Exception occured, telling client
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): java.lang.IllegalStateException: command '181 interface fwmark rule add tun0' 
  failed with '400 181 Failed to add fwmark rule (No such process)'
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1473)
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1419)
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at 
  com.cisco.android.nchs.aidl.IICSSupportService$Stub$Proxy.establish
  (IICSSupportService.java:330)
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at com.cisco.android.nchs.support.VpnBuilderWrapper.establish
  (VpnBuilderWrapper.java:137)
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at com.cisco.android.nchs.support.NCSSIPCServer.callServiceMethod
  (NCSSIPCServer.java:233)
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at 
  com.cisco.android.nchs.ipc.IPCInteractionThread.handleClientInteraction
  (IPCInteractionThread.java:230)
  E/vpnandroid( 2419): at com.cisco.android.nchs.ipc.IPCInteractionThread.run
  (IPCInteractionThread.java:90)
  E/acvpnagent( 2450): Function: ApplyVpnConfiguration 
  File: NcssHelper.cpp Line: 740 failed to establish VPN
  E/acvpnagent( 2450): Function: PluginResult AndroidSNAKSystem::configDeviceForICS() 
  File: AndroidSNAKSystem.cpp Line: 665 failed to apply vpn configuration
  E/acvpnagent( 2450): Function: virtual PluginResult AndroidSNAKSystem::ApplyConfiguration() 
  File: AndroidSNAKSystem.cpp Line: 543 Failed to Configure System for VPN.

• We are pleased to report that Android 4.4 (KitKat) bug Google Issue #61948 (AnyConnect users will experience High Packet Loss over their VPN connection /users will experience timeouts) has been resolved in Google's release of Android 4.4.1 which Google has begun distributing to some devices via Software Update. The following problem information is provided for reference:

  Due to a bug in Android 4.4 (Issue #61948, also see the Cisco Support Update), AnyConnect users will experience High Packet Loss over their VPN connection. This has been seen on the Google Nexus 5 running Android 4.4 with AnyConnect ICS+. Users will experience timeouts when attempting to access certain network resources. Also, in the ASA logs, a syslog message will appear with text similar to "Transmitting large packet 1420 (threshold 1405)."

  Until Google produces a fix for Android 4.4, VPN administrators may temporarily reduce the maximum segment size for TCP connections on the ASA by configuring the following sysopt connection tcpmss <mss size>. The default for this parameter is 1380 bytes. Reduce this value by the difference between the values seen in the ASA logs. In the above example, the difference is 15 bytes; the value should thus be no more than 1365. Reducing this value will negatively impact performance for connected VPN users where large packets are transmitted.

• AnyConnect for Android may have connectivity issues when connecting to a mobile network using the IPv6 transition mechanism known as 464xlat. Known affected devices include the Samsung Galaxy Note III LTE connecting to the T-Mobile US network. This device defaults to an IPv6 only mobile network connection. Attempting a connection may result in a loss of mobile connectivity until the device is rebooted.

  To prevent this problem, use the AnyConnect ICS+ app, and change your device settings to obtain IPv4 network connectivity or connect using a Wi-Fi network. For the Samsung Galaxy Note III LTE connecting to the T-Mobile US network, follow the instructions provided by T-Mobile to set the Access Point Name (APN) on your device, making sure APN Protocol is set to IPv4.

• The AnyConnect ICS+ package may have issues when a private IP address range within the VPN overlaps with the range of the outside interface of the client device. When this route overlap occurs, the user may be able to successfully connect to the VPN but then be unable to actually access anything. This issue has been seen on cellular networks which use NAT (Network Address Translation) and assign addresses within the 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 range, and is due to AnyConnect having limited control of routes in the Android VPN framework. The vendor specific Android packages have full routing control and may work better in such a scenario.

• An Asus tablet running Android 4.0 (ICS) may be missing the tun driver. This causes AVF AnyConnect to fail.

• Android security rules prevent the device from sending and receiving multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages while a VPN connection is up. Most devices and service providers display a notification if you try to send an MMS message while the VPN connection is up. Android permits sending and receiving of messages when the VPN is not connected.

• Due to Google Isssue 41037 , when pasting text from the clipboard, a space is inserted in front of the text. In AnyConnect, when copying text such as a one time password, the user has to delete this erroneous white space.