Certificate Management in Cisco ISE
A certificate is an electronic document that identifies an individual, a server, a company, or other entity and associates that entity with a public key. A self-signed certificate is signed by its own creator. Certificates can be self-signed or digitally signed by an external Certificate Authority (CA). A CA-signed digital certificate is considered industry standard and more secure.
Certificates are used in a network to provide secure access. Cisco ISE uses certificates for internode communication, and for communicating with external servers such as the syslog server, feed server, and all the end-user portals (guest, sponsor, and personal devices portals). Certificates identify a Cisco ISE node to an endpoint and secures the communication between that endpoint and the Cisco ISE node.
You can use the Admin portal to manage certificates for all the nodes in your deployment.
Certificates Enable Cisco ISE to Provide Secure Access
The Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) relies on public key infrastructure (PKI) to provide secure communication with both endpoints and administrators, as well as between Cisco ISE nodes in a multinode deployment. PKI relies on X.509 digital certificates to transfer public keys for encryption and decryption of messages, and to verify the authenticity of other certificates representing users and devices. Cisco ISE provides the Admin Portal to manage the following two categories of X.509 certificates:
-
System certificates—These are server certificates that identify a Cisco ISE node to client applications. Every Cisco ISE node has its own system certificates, each of which are stored on the node along with the corresponding private key.
-
Trusted certificates—These are certificate authority (CA) certificates used to establish trust for the public keys received from users and devices. The Trusted Certificates Store also contains certificates that are distributed by the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP), which enables registration of mobile devices into the enterprise network. Certificates in the Trusted Certificates Store are managed on the Primary Administration Node (PAN), and are automatically replicated to all other nodes in an Cisco ISE deployment.
In a distributed deployment, you must import the certificate only in to the certificate trust list (CTL) of the PAN. The certificate gets replicated to the secondary nodes.
In general, to ensure certificate authentication in Cisco ISE is not impacted by minor differences in certificate-driven verification functions, use lower case hostnames for all Cisco ISE nodes deployed in a network.
Certificate Usage
When you add or import a certificate in to Cisco ISE, you should specify the purpose for which the certificate is to be used:
-
Admin: For internode communication and authenticating the Admin portal
-
EAP: For TLS-based EAP authentication
-
Portal: For communicating with all Cisco ISE end-user portals
-
xGrid: For communicating with the pxGrid controller
You can associate different certificates from each node for communicating with the Admin portal (Admin), the pxGrid controller (xGrid), and for TLS-based EAP authentication (EAP). However, you can associate only one certificate from each node for each of these purposes.
With multiple Policy Service nodes (PSNs) in a deployment that can service a web portal request, Cisco ISE needs a unique identifier to identify the certificate that has to be used for portal communication. When you add or import certificates that are designated for portal use, you must define a certificate group tag and associate it with the corresponding certificate on each node in your deployment. You must associate this certificate group tag to the corresponding end-user portals (guest, sponsor, and personal devices portals). This certificate group tag is the unique identifier that helps Cisco ISE identify the certificate that has to be used when communicating with each of these portals. You can designate one certificate from each node for each of the portals.
![]() Note |
EAP-TLS client certificate should have KeyUsage=Key Agreement and ExtendedKeyUsage=Client Authentication for the following ciphers:
EAP-TLS client certificate should have KeyUsage=Key Encipherment and ExtendedKeyUsage=Client Authentication for the following ciphers:
|
Certificate Matching in Cisco ISE
When you set up Cisco ISE nodes in a deployment, those two nodes communicate with each other. The system checks the FQDN of each ISE node to ensure they match (for example ise1.cisco.com and ise2.cisco.com or if you use wild card certificates then *.cisco.com). In addition, when an external machine presents a certificate to an ISE server, the external certificate that is presented for authentication is checked (or matched) against the certificate in the ISE server. If the two certificates match, the authentication succeeds.
For , matching is performed between the nodes (if there are two) and between the and pxGrid.
Cisco ISE checks for a matching subject name as follows:
-
Cisco ISE looks at the subject alternative name (SAN) extension of the certificate. If the SAN contains one or more DNS names, then one of the DNS names must match the FQDN of the Cisco ISE node. If a wildcard certificate is used, then the wildcard domain name must match the domain in the Cisco ISE node’s FQDN.
-
If there are no DNS names in the SAN, or if the SAN is missing entirely, then the Common Name (CN) in the Subject field of the certificate or the wildcard domain in the Subject field of the certificate must match the FQDN of the node.
-
If no match is found, the certificate is rejected.
Note
X.509 certificates imported to Cisco ISE must be in privacy-enhanced mail (PEM) or distinguished encoding rule (DER) format. Files containing a certificate chain, which is a system certificate along with the sequence of trust certificates that sign it, can be imported, subject to certain restrictions.
Validity of X.509 Certificates
X.509 certificates are only valid until a specific date. When a system certificate expires, the Cisco ISE functionality that depends on the certificate is impacted. Cisco ISE notifies you about the pending expiration of a system certificate when the expiration date is within 90 days. This notification appears in several ways:
-
Colored expiration status icons appear in the System Certificates page.
-
Expiration messages appear in the Cisco ISE System Diagnostic report.
-
Expiration alarms are generated at 90 days, 60 days, and every day in the final 30 days before expiration.
If the expiring certificate is a self-signed certificate, you can extend its expiration date by editing the certificate. For a CA-signed certificate, you must allow sufficient time to acquire replacement certificate from your CA.
Enable PKI in Cisco ISE
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a cryptographic technique that enables secure communication and verifies the identity of a user using digital signatures.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Establish system certificates on each deployment node for TLS-enabled authentication protocols such as EAP-TLS, for authenticating the Admin portal, for browser and REST clients to access the Cisco ISE web portals, and for the pxGrid controller. By default, a Cisco ISE node is preinstalled with a self-signed certificate that is used for EAP authentication, Admin portal, portals, and pxGrid controller. In a typical enterprise environment, this certificate is replaced with server certificates that are signed by a trusted CA. |
||
Step 2 |
Populate the Trusted Certificates Store with the CA certificates that are necessary to establish trust with the user as well as device certificates that will be presented to Cisco ISE. If a certificate chain consists of a root CA certificate plus one or more intermediate CA certificates, to validate the authenticity of a user or device certificate, you must import the entire chain into the Trusted Certificates Store. For inter-node communication, you must populate the Trusted Certificates Store with the trust certificate(s) needed to validate the Admin system certificate belonging to each node in the Cisco ISE deployment. If you want to use the default self-signed certificate for internode communication, then you must export this certificate from the System Certificates page of each Cisco ISE node and import it into the Trusted Certificates Store. If you replace the self-signed certificates with CA-signed certificates, it is only necessary to populate the Trusted Certificates Store with the appropriate root CA and intermediate CA certificates. Be aware that you cannot register a node in a Cisco ISE deployment until you complete this step. If you use self-signed certificates to secure communication between a client and PSN in a deployment, when BYOD users move from one location to another, EAP-TLS user authentication fails. For such authentication requests that have to be serviced between a few PSNs, you must secure communication between the client and PSN with an externally-signed CA certificate or use wildcard certificates signed by an external CA.
|
Wildcard Certificates
A wildcard certificate uses a wildcard notation (an asterisk and period before the domain name) and allows the certificate to be shared across multiple hosts in an organization. For example, the CN value for the Certificate Subject would be some generic hostname such as aaa.ise.local and the SAN field would include the same generic hostname and the wildcard notation such as DNS.1=aaa.ise.local and DNS.2=*.ise.local.
If you configure a wildcard certificate to use *.ise.local, you can use the same certificate to secure any other host whose DNS name ends with “.ise.local,” such as :
-
aaa.ise.local
-
psn.ise.local
-
mydevices.ise.local
-
sponsor.ise.local
Wildcard certificates secure communication in the same way as a regular certificate, and requests are processed using the same validation methods.
The following figure shows an example of a wildcard certificate that is used to secure a web site.

Wildcard Certificate Support in Cisco ISE
In earlier releases, Cisco ISE used that CN value to replace the variable in the url-redirect A-V pair string. For all Centralized Web Authentication (CWA), onboarding, posture redirection, and so on, the CN value was used.
Cisco ISE uses the hostname of the ISE node as the CN.
Wildcard Certificates for HTTPS and EAP Communication
You can use wildcard server certificates in Cisco ISE for Admin (web-based service) and EAP protocols that use SSL/TLS tunneling. With the use of wildcard certificates, you no longer have to generate a unique certificate for each Cisco ISE node. Also, you no longer have to populate the SAN field with multiple FQDN values to prevent certificate warnings. Using an asterisk (*) in the SAN field allows you to share a single certificate across multiple nodes in a deployment and helps prevent certificate name mismatch warnings. However, use of wildcard certificates is considered less secure than assigning a unique server certificate for each Cisco ISE node.
When assigning public wildcard certificates to the guest portal and importing sub-CA with root-CA certificates, the certificate chain is not sent until the ISE services are restarted.
![]() Note |
If you use wildcard certificates, we strongly recommend that you partition your domain space for greater security. For example, instead of *.example.com, you can partition it as *.amer.example.com. If you do not partition your domain, it can lead to serious security issues. |
Wildcard certificate uses an asterisk (*) and a period before the domain name. For example, the CN value for a certificate’s Subject Name would be a generic host name such as aaa.ise.local and the SAN field would have the wildcard character such as *.ise.local. Cisco ISE supports wildcard certifications in which the wildcard character (*) is the left most character in the presented identifier. For example, *.example.com or *.ind.example.com. Cisco ISE does not support certificates in which the presented identifier contains additional characters along with the wildcard character. For example, abc*.example.com or a*b.example.com or *abc.example.com.
Fully Qualified Domain Name in URL Redirection
url-redirect=https://ip:port/guestportal/gateway?sessionId=SessionIdValue&action=cwa
When processing this request, Cisco ISE substitutes actual values for some keywords in this string. For example, SessionIdValue is replaced with the actual session ID of the request. For eth0 interface, Cisco ISE replaces the IP in the URL with the FQDN of the Cisco ISE node. For non-eth0 interfaces, Cisco ISE uses the IP address in the URL. You can assign a host alias(name) for interfaces eth1 through eth3, which Cisco ISE can then substitute in place of IP address during URL redirection.
To do this, you can use the ip host command in the configuration mode from the Cisco ISE CLI ISE /admin(config)# prompt:
ip host IP_address host-alias FQDN-string
where IP_address is the IP address of the network interface (eth1 or eth2 or eth3) and host-alias is the name that you assign to the network interface. FQDN-string is the fully qualified domain name of the network interface. Using this command, you can assign a host-alias or an FQDN-string or both to a network interface.
Here is an example using the ip host command: ip host a.b.c.d sales sales.amerxyz.comAfter you assign a host alias to the non-eth0 interface, you must restart the application services on Cisco ISE using the application start ise command.
Use the no form of this command to remove the association of the host alias with the network interface.
no ip host IP_address host-alias FQDN-string
Use the show running-config command to view the host alias definitions.
If you provide the FQDN-string, Cisco ISE replaces the IP address in the URL with the FQDN. If you provide only the host alias, Cisco ISE combines the host alias with the configured IP domain name to form a complete FQDN, and replaces the IP address in the URL with the FQDN. If you do not map a network interface to a host alias, then Cisco ISE uses the IP address of the network interface in the URL.
When you make use of non-eth0 interfaces for client provisioning or native supplicant or guest flows, you have to make sure that the IP address or host alias for non-eth0 interfaces should be configured appropriately in the Policy Service node certificate's SAN fields.
Advantages of Using Wildcard Certificates
-
Cost savings. Certificates signed by a third party Certificate Authority is expensive, especially as the number of servers increase. Wildcard certificates may be used on multiple nodes in the Cisco ISE deployment.
-
Operational efficiency. Wildcard certificates allow all Policy Service Node (PSN) EAP and web services to share the same certificate. In addition to significant cost savings, certificate administration is also simplified by creating the certificate once and applying it on all the PSNs.
-
Reduced authentication errors. Wildcard certificates address issues seen with Apple iOS devices where the client stores trusted certificates within the profile, and does not follow the iOS keychain where the signing root is trusted. When an iOS client first communicates with a PSN, it does not explicitly trust the PSN certificate, even though a trusted Certificate Authority has signed the certificate. Using a wildcard certificate, the certificate will be the same across all PSNs, so the user only has to accept the certificate once and successive authentications to different PSNs proceed without error or prompting.
-
Simplified supplicant configuration. For example, Microsoft Windows supplicant with PEAP-MSCHAPv2 and server certificate trust enabled requires that you specify each of the server certificate to trust, or the user may be prompted to trust each PSN certificate when the client connects using a different PSN. With wildcard certificates, a single server certificate can be trusted rather than individual certificates from each PSN.
-
Wildcard certificates result in an improved user experience with less prompting and more seamless connectivity.
Disadvantages of Using Wildcard Certificates
-
Loss of auditability and nonrepudiation
-
Increased exposure of the private key
-
Not common or understood by administrators
Wildcard certificates are considered less secure than a unique server certificate per ISE node. But, cost and other operational factors outweigh the security risk.
Security devices such as ASA also support wildcard certificates.
You must be careful when deploying wildcard certificates. For example, if you create a certificate with *.company.local and an attacker is able to recover the private key, that attacker can spoof any server in the company.local domain. Therefore, it is considered a best practice to partition the domain space to avoid this type of compromise.
To address this possible issue and to limit the scope of use, wildcard certificates may also be used to secure a specific subdomain of your organization. Add an asterisk (*) in the subdomain area of the common name where you want to specify the wildcard.
For example, if you configure a wildcard certificate for *.ise.company.local, that certificate may be used to secure any host whose DNS name ends in “.ise.company.local”, such as:
-
psn.ise.company.local
-
mydevices.ise.company.local
-
sponsor.ise.company.local
Wildcard Certificate Compatibility
Wildcard certificates are usually created with the wildcard listed as the Common Name (CN) of the Certificate Subject. Cisco ISE supports this type of construction. However, not all endpoint supplicants support the wildcard character in the Certificate Subject.
All Microsoft native supplicants tested (including Windows Mobile) do not support wildcard character in the Certificate Subject.
You can use another supplicant, such as Cisco AnyConnect Network Access Manager (NAM) that might allow the use of wildcard character in the Subject field.
You can also use special wildcard certificates such as DigiCert's Wildcard Plus that is designed to work with incompatible devices by including specific subdomains in the Subject Alternative Name of the certificate.
Although the Microsoft supplicant limitation appears to be a deterrent to using wildcard certificates, there are alternative ways to create the wildcard certificate that allow it to work with all devices tested for secure access, including the Microsoft native supplicants.
To do this, instead of using the wildcard character in the Subject, you must use the wildcard character in the Subject Alterative Name (SAN) field instead. The SAN field maintains an extension designed for checking the domain name (DNS name). See RFCs 6125 and 2128 for more information.
Certificate Hierarchy
From the Admin portal, you can view the certificate hierarchy or the certificate trust chain of all endpoint, system, and trusted certificates. The certificate hierarchy includes the certificate, all intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) certificates, and the root certificate. For example, when you choose to view a system certificate from the the Admin portal, by default, the details of the corresponding system certificate appear. The certificate hierarchy appears at the top of the certificate. Click any of the certificates in the hierarchy to view its details. The self-signed certificate does not have any hierarchy or trust chain.
In the certificate listing pages, you will see one of the following icons in the Status column:
-
Green icon—Indicates a valid certificate (valid trust chain)
-
Red icon—Indicates an error (for example, trust certificate missing or expired)
-
Yellow icon—Warns that a certificate is about to expire and prompts renewal
System Certificates
Cisco ISE system certificates are server certificates that identify a Cisco ISE node to other nodes in the deployment and to client applications. System certificates are:
-
Used for inter-node communication in a Cisco ISE deployment. Choose the Admin option in the Usage field for these certificates.
-
Used by browser and REST clients who connect to Cisco ISE web portals. Choose the Portal option in the Usage field for these certificates.
-
Used to form the outer TLS tunnel with PEAP and EAP-FAST. Choose the EAP option in the Usage field for mutual authentication with EAP-TLS, PEAP, and EAP-FAST.
-
Used to communicate with the pxGrid controller. Choose the pxGrid option in the Usage field for these certificates.
You must install valid system certificates on each node in your Cisco ISE deployment. By default, a self-signed certificate is created on a Cisco ISE node during installation time, and this certificate is designated for EAP, Admin, Portal, and pxGrid use (it has a key length of 1024 and is valid for one year).
![]() Note |
When you export a wildcard system certificate to be imported in to the other nodes (for inter-node communication), ensure that you export the certificate and private key, and specify an encryption password. During import, you will need the certificate, private key, and encryption password. |
![]() Note |
To find out the supported key and cipher information for your release, please find the appropriate version of the Cisco Identity Services Engine Network Component Compatibility guide. |
Cisco recommends that you replace the self-signed certificate with a CA-signed certificates for greater security. To obtain a CA-signed certificate, you must:
-
Create a certificate signing request (CSR)
-
Submit it to a Certificate Authority (CA)
-
Obtain the signed certificate
-
Import the relevant root and intermediate CA certificates in to the Trusted Certificates Store
-
Bind the signed certificate with the CSR
View System Certificates
The System Certificate page lists all the system certificates added to Cisco ISE.
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . The System Certificates page appears and provides the following information for the local certificates:
|
Step 2 |
Select a certificate and choose to display the certificate details. |
Import a System Certificate
You can import a system certificate for any Cisco ISE node from the Admin portal.
Before you begin
-
Ensure that you have the system certificate and the private key file on the system that is running the client browser.
-
If the system certificate that you import is signed by an external CA, import the relevant root CA and intermediate CA certificates in to the Trusted Certificates Store (Administration > System > Certificates > Trusted Certificates).
-
Cisco ISE does not support certificates that are signed with a hash algorithm greater than SHA-256. Hence, you must not import a server certificate that is signed with a hash algorithm greater than SHA-256.
-
If the system certificate that you import contains the basic constraints extension with the CA flag set to true, ensure that the key usage extension is present, and the keyEncipherment bit or the keyAgreement bit or both are set.
-
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Click Import. |
Step 3 |
Enter the values for the certificate that you are going to import. |
Step 4 |
Click Submit. |
Generate a Self-Signed Certificate
You can add a new local certificate by generating a self-signed certificate. Cisco recommends that you only employ self-signed certificates for your internal testing and evaluation needs. If you are planning to deploy Cisco ISE in a production environment, be sure to use CA-signed certificates whenever possible to ensure more uniform acceptance around a production network.
![]() Note |
If you are using a self-signed certificate and you must change the hostname of your Cisco ISE node, you must log in to the Admin portal of the Cisco ISE node, delete the self-signed certificate that has the old hostname, and generate a new self-signed certificate. Otherwise, Cisco ISE will continue to use the self-signed certificate with the old hostname. |
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . To generate a self-signed certificate from a secondary node, choose . |
Step 2 |
Click Generate Self Signed Certificate and enter the details in the Generate Self Signed Certificate page. |
Step 3 |
Check the Allow Wildcard Certificates checkbox if you want to generate a self-signed wildcard certificate (a certificate that contains an asterisk (*) in any Common Name in the Subject and/or the DNS name in the Subject Alternative Name. For example, DNS name assigned to the SAN can be *.amer.cisco.com. |
Step 4 |
Check the checkboxes in the Usage area based on the service for which you want to use this certificate. |
Step 5 |
Click Submit to generate the certificate. To restart the secondary nodes, from the CLI, enter the following commands in the given order:
|
Edit a System Certificate
You can use this page to edit a system certificate and to renew a self-signed certificate. When you edit a wildcard certificate, the changes are replicated to all the nodes in the deployment. If you delete a wildcard certificate, that wildcard certificate is removed from all the nodes in the deployment.
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Check the check box next to the certificate that you want to edit, and click Edit. |
Step 3 |
To renew a self-signed certificate, check the Renewal Period check box and enter the Expiration TTL (Time to Live) in days, weeks, months, or years. |
Step 4 |
Click Save to save your changes. If the Admin check box is checked, then the application server on the Cisco ISE node will be restarted. In addition, if the Cisco ISE node is the PAN in a deployment, then the application server on all other nodes in the deployment will also be restarted. The system restarts one node at a time, after the Primary Administration Node (PAN) restart has completed. |
![]() Note |
Using Chrome 65 and above to launch ISE can cause BYOD portal or Guest portal to fail to launch in the browser even though URL is redirected successfully. This is because of a new security feature introduced by Google that requires all certificates to have a Subject Alternative Name field. For releases ISE 2.4 and later, you must fill the Subject Alternative Name field. To launch with Chrome 65 and above, follow the steps below: 1. Generate a new self-signed certificate from ISE GUI by filling the Subject Alternative Name field. Both DNS and IP Address must be filled. 2. ISE services will now restart. 3. Redirect the portal in Chrome browser. 4. From browser View Certificate>Details>Copy the certificate by selecting base-64 encoded. 5. Install the certificate in Trusted path. 6. Close the Chrome browser and try to redirect the portal. |
![]() Note |
When configuring wireless BYOD setup for the browser Firefox 64 and above, with operating systems Win RS4 or RS5, you may not be able to add Certificate Exception. This behaviour is expected in the case of fresh installs of Firefox 64 and above, and does not occur in the case of upgrading to Firefox 64 and above from a previous version. The following steps will allow you to add certificate exception in this case: 1. Configure for BYOD flow single/dual PEAP or TLS. 2. Configure CP Policy with Windows ALL option. 3. Connect Dot1.x/MAB SSID in end client Windows RS4/RS5. 4. Type 1.1.1.1 in FF64 browser for redirection to Guest/BYOD portal. 5. Click , and proceed with flow.As a workaround, you will have to add the certificate manually for Firefox 64, by navigating |
Delete System Certificate
You can delete system certificates that you no longer use.
Even though you can delete multiple certificates from the System Certificates store at a time, you must have at least one certificate that can be used for Admin and EAP authentication. Also, you cannot delete any certificate that is in use for Admin, EAP Authentication, Portals, or pxGrid controller. However, you can delete the pxGrid certificate when the service is disabled.
If you choose to delete a wildcard certificate, the certificate is removed from all the nodes in the deployment.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Check the checkboxes next to the certificates that you want to delete, and click Delete. A warning message appears. |
Step 3 |
Click Yes to delete the certificate. |
Export a System Certificate
You can export a selected system certificate or a certificate and its associated private key. If you export a certificate and its private key for backup purposes, you can reimport them later if needed.
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
||
Step 2 |
Check the checkbox next to the certificate that you want to export and then click Export. |
||
Step 3 |
Choose whether to export only the certificate, or the certificate and its associated private key.
|
||
Step 4 |
Enter the password if you have chosen to export the private key. The password should be at least 8 characters long. |
||
Step 5 |
Click Export to save the certificate to the file system that is running your client browser. If you export only the certificate, the certificate is stored in the privacy-enhanced mail format. If you export both the certificate and private key, the certificate is exported as a .zip file that contains the certificate in the privacy-enhanced mail format and the encrypted private key file. |
Trusted Certificates Store
The Trusted Certificates Store contains X.509 certificates that are used for trust and for Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP).
The certificates in the Trusted Certificate Store are managed on the PAN, and are replicated to every node in the Cisco ISE deployment. Cisco ISE supports wildcard certificates.
Cisco ISE uses the trusted certificates for the following purposes:
-
To verify client certificates used for authentication by endpoints, and by Cisco ISE administrators accessing ISE-PICthe Admin Portal using certificate-based administrator authentication.
-
To enable secure communication between Cisco ISE nodes in a deployment. The Trusted Certificates Store must contain the chain of CA certificates needed to establish trust with the system certificate on each node in a deployment.
-
If a self-signed certificate is used for the system certificate, the self-signed certificate from each node must be placed in the Trusted Certificates Store of the PAN.
-
If a CA-signed certificate is used for the system certificate, the CA root certificate, as well as any intermediate certificates in the trust chain, must be placed in the Trusted Certificates Store of the PAN.
-
-
To enable secure LDAP authentication, a certificate from the Certificate Store must be selected when defining an LDAP identity source that will be accessed over SSL.
-
To distribute to personal devices preparing to register in the network using the personal devices portals. Cisco ISE implements the SCEP on Policy Service Nodes (PSN) to support personal device registration. A registering device uses the SCEP protocol to request a client certificate from a PSN. The PSN contains a registration authority (RA) that acts as an intermediary; it receives and validates the request from the registering device, and then forwards the request to an external CA or the internal Cisco ISE CA, which issues the client certificate. The CA sends the certificate back to the RA, which returns it to the device.
Each SCEP CA used by Cisco ISE is defined by a SCEP RA Profile. When a SCEP RA Profile is created, two certificates are automatically added to the Trusted Certificates Store:
-
A CA certificate (a self-signed certificate)
-
An RA certificate (a Certificate Request Agent certificate), which is signed by the CA.
The SCEP protocol requires that these two certificates be provided by the RA to a registering device. By placing these two certificates in the Trusted Certificates Store, they are replicated to all PSN nodes for use by the RA on those nodes.
Note
When a SCEP RA Profile is removed, the associated CA chain is also removed from the Trusted Certificates Store.
-
![]() Note |
|
Certificates in Trusted Certificates Store
The Trusted Certificate Store is prepopulated with trusted certificates: Manufacturing certificate, Root certificate, Endpoint CA, Endpoint RA, and other trusted certificates. The Root certificate (Cisco Root CA) signs the Manufacturing (Cisco CA Manufacturing) certificate. These certificates are disabled by default. If you have Cisco IP phones as endpoints in your deployment, you should enable these two certificates so the Cisco-signed client certificates for the phones can be authenticated.
Trusted Certificate Naming Constraint
A trusted certificate in CTL may contain a name constraint extension. This extension defines a namespace for values of all subject name and subject alternative name fields of subsequent certificates in a certificate chain. Cisco ISE does not check constraints specified in a root certificate.
The following name constraints are supported:
-
Directory name
The Directory name constraint should be a prefix of the directory name in subject/SAN. For example,
-
Correct subject prefix:
CA certificate name constraint: Permitted: O=Cisco
Client certificate subject: O=Cisco,CN=Salomon
-
Incorrect subject prefix:
CA certificate name constraint: Permitted: O=Cisco
Client certificate subject: CN=Salomon,O=Cisco
-
-
DNS
-
E-mail
-
URI (The URI constraint must start with a URI prefix such as http://, https://, ftp://, or ldap://).
The following name constraints are not supported:
-
IP address
-
Othername
When a trusted certificate contains a constraint that is not supported and certificate that is being verified does not contain the appropriate field, it is rejected because Cisco ISE cannot verify unsupported constraints.
The following is an example of the name constraints definition within the trusted certificate:
X509v3 Name Constraints: critical
Permitted:
othername:<unsupported>
email:.abcde.at
email:.abcde.be
email:.abcde.bg
email:.abcde.by
DNS:.dir
DirName: DC = dir, DC = emea
DirName: C = AT, ST = EMEA, L = AT, O = ABCDE Group, OU = Domestic
DirName: C = BG, ST = EMEA, L = BG, O = ABCDE Group, OU = Domestic
DirName: C = BE, ST = EMEA, L = BN, O = ABCDE Group, OU = Domestic
DirName: C = CH, ST = EMEA, L = CH, O = ABCDE Group, OU = Service Z100
URI:.dir
IP:172.23.0.171/255.255.255.255
Excluded:
DNS:.dir
URI:.dir
An acceptable client certificate subject that matches the above definition is as follows:
Subject: DC=dir, DC=emea, OU=+DE, OU=OU-Administration, OU=Users, OU=X1, CN=cwinwell
View Trusted Store Certificates
The Trusted Certificates page lists all the trusted certificates that have been added to Cisco ISE. To view the trusted certificates, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
To view all the certificates, choose Choose . The Trusted Certificates page appears, listing all the trusted certificates.
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Change the Status of a Certificate in Trusted Certificates Store
The status of a certificate must be enabled so that Cisco ISE can use the certificate for establishing trust. When a certificate is imported into the Trusted Certificates Store, it is automatically enabled.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Check the checkbox next to the certificate you want to enable or disable, and click Edit. |
Step 3 |
Change the status. |
Step 4 |
Click Save. |
Add a Certificate to Trusted Certificates Store
The Certificate Store page allows you to add CA certificates to Cisco ISE.
Before you begin
-
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
-
Ensure that the certificate store certificate resides on the file system of the computer where your browser is running. The certificate must be in PEM or DER format.
-
If you plan to use the certificate for Admin or EAP authentication, ensure that the basic constraints are defined in the certificate and the CA flag is set to true.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Click Import. |
Step 3 |
Configure the field values as necessary. If you plan to use any sub-CA certificate in the certificate chain for EAP authentication or certificate-based administrator authentication, ensure that you check the Trust for client authentication and Syslog checkbox while importing all the certificates in the certificate chain up until the Root CA. you can import more than one CA certificate with the same subject name. For certificate-based administrator authentication, select the checkbox Trust for certificate based admin authentication when adding a trusted certificate. When you change the authentication type from password-based authentication to certificate-based authentication, Cisco ISE restarts the application server on each node in your deployment, starting with the application server on the PAN and followed, one-by-one, by each additional node. |
Edit a Trusted Certificate
After you add a certificate to the Trusted Certificates Store, you can further edit it by using the edit settings.
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Check the check box next to the certificate that you want to edit, and click Edit. |
Step 3 |
Modify the editable fields as required. |
Step 4 |
Click Save to save the changes you have made to the certificate store. |
Delete Trusted Certificates
You can delete trusted certificates that you no longer need. However, ensure that you do not delete the ISE Internal CA (Certificate Authority) certificates. The ISE Internal CA certificates can be deleted only when you replace the ISE Root Certificate Chain for the entire deployment.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Check the check boxes next to the certificates that you want to delete, and click Delete. A warning message appears. If you have chosen to delete the ISE Internal CA certificates, click:
|
Step 3 |
Click Yes to delete the certificate. |
Export a Certificate from the Trusted Certificates Store
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . . |
Step 2 |
Check the check box next to the certificate that you want to export, and click Export. You can export only one certificate at a time. |
Step 3 |
Save the privacy-enhanced mail file to the file system that is running your client browser. |
Import the Root Certificates to the Trusted Certificate Store
While importing the root CA and intermediate CA certificates, you can specify the service(s) for which the Trusted CA certificates are to be used.
Before you begin
You must have the root certificate and other intermediate certificates from the Certificate Authority that signed your CSRs and returned the digitally signed CA certificates.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Click Import. |
Step 3 |
Click Browse to select the root CA certificate. |
Step 4 |
Enter a Friendly Name. |
Step 5 |
Choose the root certificate returned by your CA. |
Step 6 |
Check the check boxes next to the services for which you want to use this trusted certificate for. |
Step 7 |
Enter a description. |
Step 8 |
Click Submit. |
What to do next
Import the intermediate CA certificates in to the Trusted Certificates store (if applicable).
Certificate Chain Import
You can import multiple certificates from a single file that contains a certificate chain received from a Certificate store. All certificates in the file must be in Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) format, and the certificates must be arranged in the following order:
-
The last certificate in the file must be the client or server certificate being issued by the CA.
-
All preceding certificates must be the root CA certificate plus any intermediate CA certificates in the signing chain for the issued certificate.
Importing a certificate chain is a two-step process:
-
Import the certificate chain file into the Trusted Certificate Store in the Admin portal. This operation imports all certificates from the file except the last one into the Trusted Certificates Store.
-
Import the certificate chain file using the Bind a CA-Signed Certificate operation. This operation imports the last certificate from the file as a local certificate.
Certificate Signing Requests
For a certificate authority (CA) to issue a signed certificate, you must create a certificate signing request (CSR) and submit it to the CA.
The list of Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) that you have created is available in the Certificate Signing Requests page. To obtain signatures from a Certificate Authority (CA), you must export the CSRs and then send the certificates to the CA. The CA signs and returns your certificates.
You can manage the certificates centrally from the Admin portal. You can create CSRs for all nodes in the deployment and export them. Then you should submit the CSRs to a CA, obtain the CA-signed certificates from the CA, import the root and intermediary CA certificates returned by the CA in to the Trusted Certificates Store, and bind the CA-signed certificates to the CSRs.
Create a Certificate Signing Request and Submit the CSR to a Certificate Authority
You can generate a certificate signing request (CSR) to obtain a CA-signed certificate for the nodes in your deployment. You can generate the CSR for select nodes in the deployment or for all the nodes in your deployment.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose |
Step 2 |
Enter the values for generating a CSR. See Certificate-Signing Request Settings for information on each of the fields. |
Step 3 |
Click Generate to generate the CSR. The CSR is generated. |
Step 4 |
Click Export to open the CSR in a Notepad. |
Step 5 |
Copy all the text from “-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----” through “-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----.” |
Step 6 |
Paste the contents of the CSR in to the certificate request of a chosen CA. |
Step 7 |
Download the signed certificate. Some CAs might email the signed certificate to you. The signed certificate is in the form of a zip file that contains the newly issued certificate and the public signing certificates of the CA that you must add to the Cisco ISE trusted certificates store. The digitally-signed CA certificate, root CA certificate, and other intermediate CA certificate (if applicable) are downloaded to the local system running your client browser. |
Bind the CA-Signed Certificate to the CSR
After you have the digitally signed certificate returned by the CA, you must bind it to the certificate signing request (CSR). You can perform the bind operation for all the nodes in your deployment from the Admin portal.
Before you begin
-
You must have the digitally signed certificate, and the relevant root intermediate CA certificates returned by the CA.
-
Import the relevant root and intermediate CA certificates in to the Trusted Certificates Store ().
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose Check the check box next to the node for which you are binding the CSR with the CA-signed certificate. |
||
Step 2 |
Click Bind. |
||
Step 3 |
Click Browse to choose the CA-signed certificate. |
||
Step 4 |
Specify a Friendly Name for the certificate. |
||
Step 5 |
Check the Validate Certificate Extensions check box if you want Cisco ISE to validate certificate extensions. If you enable the Validate Certificate Extensions option, and the certificate that you are importing contains a basic constraints extension with the CA flag set to true, ensure that the key usage extension is present, and that the keyEncipherment bit or the keyAgreement bit, or both, are also set.
|
||
Step 6 |
Check the service for which this certificate will be used in the Usage area. |
||
Step 7 |
Click Submit to bind the CA-signed certificate. If you have chosen to use this certificate for Cisco ISE internode communication, the application server on the Cisco ISE node is restarted. Repeat this process to bind the CSR with the CA-signed certificate on the other nodes. |
What to do next
Export a Certificate Signing Request
You can use this page to export certificate signing requests.
Before you begin
To perform the following task, you must be a Super Admin or System Admin.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose |
Step 2 |
Check the check box next to the certificates that you want to export, and click Export. |
Step 3 |
Click OK to save the file to the file system that is running the client browser. |
Install Trusted Certificates for Cisco ISE Inter-node Communication
When you set up the deployment, before you register a secondary node, you must populate the PAN's Certificate Trust List (CTL) with appropriate CA certificates that are used to validate the Admin certificate of the secondary node. The procedure to populate the CTL of the PAN is different for different scenarios:
-
If the secondary node is using a CA-signed certificate to communicate with the Admin portal, you must import the CA-signed certificate of the secondary node, the relevant intermediate certificates(if any), and the root CA certificate (of the CA that signed the secondary node's certificate) in to the CTL of the PAN.
-
If the secondary node is using a self-signed certificate to communicate with the Admin portal, you can import the self-signed certificate of the secondary node in to the CTL of the PAN.
Note
-
If you change the Admin certificate on a registered secondary node, you must obtain appropriate CA certificates that can be used to validate the secondary node’s Admin certificate and import it in to the CTL of the PAN.
-
If you use self-signed certificates to secure communication between a client and PSN in a deployment, when BYOD users move from one location to another, EAP-TLS user authentication fails. For such authentication requests that have to be serviced between a few PSNs, you must secure communication between the client and PSN with an externally-signed CA certificate or use wildcard certificates signed by an external CA.
-
Ensure that the certificate issued by the external CA has basic constraints defined and the CA flag set to true. To install CA-signed certificates for inter-node communication:
Procedure
Step 1 |
Create a Certificate Signing Request and Submit the CSR to a Certificate Authority |
Step 2 |
Import the Root Certificates to the Trusted Certificate Store |
Step 3 |
Set Up Certificates for Portal Use
With multiple Policy Service nodes (PSNs) in a deployment that can service a web portal request, Cisco ISE needs a unique identifier to identify the certificate that has to be used for portal communication. When you add or import certificates that are designated for portal use, you must define a certificate group tag and associate it with the corresponding certificate on each node in your deployment. You must associate this certificate group tag to the corresponding end-user portals (guest, sponsor, and personal devices portals). This certificate group tag is the unique identifier that helps Cisco ISE identify the certificate that has to be used when communicating with each of these portals. You can designate one certificate from each node for each of the portals.
![]() Note |
Cisco ISE presents the Portal certificate on TCP port 8443 (or the port that you have configured for portal use). |
Procedure
Step 1 |
Create a Certificate Signing Request and Submit the CSR to a Certificate Authority. You must choose a Certificate Group Tag that you have already defined or create a new one for the portal. For example, mydevicesportal. |
Step 2 |
Import the Root Certificates to the Trusted Certificate Store. |
Step 3 |
Reassign Default Portal Certificate Group Tag to CA-Signed Certificate
By default, all Cisco ISE portals use the self-signed certificate. If you want to use a CA-signed certificate for portals, you can assign the default portal certificate group tag to a CA-signed certificate. You can use an existing CA-signed certificate or generate a CSR and obtain a new CA-signed certificate for portal use. You can reassign any portal group tag from one certificate to another.
![]() Note |
When you edit an existing certificate, if the portal tag (guest) that is associated with the certificate is already in use by any of the portals, then you cannot reassign the default portal certificate group tag or any other portal group tag to this certificate. The system displays the list of portals that use the "guest" portal tag. |
The following procedure describes how to reassign the default portal certificate group tag to a CA-signed certificate.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose .Hover the mouse over the i icon next to the Default Portal Certificate Group tag to view the list of portals that use this tag. You can also view the ISE nodes in the deployment that have portal certificates which are assigned this tag. |
Step 2 |
Check the check box next to the CA-signed certificate that you want to use for portals, and click Edit. Be sure to choose a CA-signed certificate that is not in use by any of the portals. |
Step 3 |
Under the Usage area, check the Portal check box and choose the Default Portal Certificate Group Tag. |
Step 4 |
Click Save. A warning message appears. |
Step 5 |
Click Yes to reassign the default portal certificate group tag to the CA-signed certificate. |
Associate the Portal Certificate Tag Before You Register a Node
If you use the "Default Portal Certificate Group" tag for all the portals in your deployment, before you register a new ISE node, ensure that you import the relevant CA-signed certificate, choose "Portal" as a service, and associate the "Default Portal Certificate Group" tag with this certificate.
When you add a new node to a deployment, the default self-signed certificate is associated with the "Default Portal Certificate Group" tag and the portals are configured to use this tag.
After you register a new node, you cannot change the Certificate Group tag association. Therefore, before you register the node to the deployment, you must do the following:
Procedure
Step 1 |
Create a self-signed certificate, choose "Portal" as a service, and assign a different certificate group tag (for example, tempportaltag). |
||||||||
Step 2 |
Change the portal configuration to use the newly created certificate group tag (tempportaltag). |
||||||||
Step 3 |
Edit the default self-signed certificate and remove the Portal role. This option removes the Default Portal Certificate Group tag association with the default self-signed certificate. |
||||||||
Step 4 |
Do one of the following:
|
||||||||
Step 5 |
Register the ISE node to the deployment. |
User and Endpoint Certificate Renewal
By default, Cisco ISE rejects a request that comes from a device whose certificate has expired. However, you can change this default behavior and configure ISE to process such requests and prompt the user to renew the certificate.
If you choose to allow the user to renew the certificate, Cisco recommends that you configure an authorization policy rule which checks if the certificate has been renewed before processing the request any further. Processing a request from a device whose certificate has expired may pose a potential security threat. Hence, you must configure appropriate authorization profiles and rules to ensure that your organization’s security is not compromised.
Some devices allow you to renew the certificates before and after their expiry. But on Windows devices, you can renew the certificates only before it expires. Apple iOS, Mac OSX, and Android devices allow you to renew the certificates before or after their expiry.
Dictionary Attributes Used in Policy Conditions for Certificate Renewal
Cisco ISE certificate dictionary contains the following attributes that are used in policy conditions to allow a user to renew the certificate:
-
Days to Expiry: This attribute provides the number of days for which the certificate is valid. You can use this attribute to create a condition that can be used in authorization policy. This attribute can take a value from 0 to 15. A value of 0 indicates that the certificate has already expired. A value of 1 indicates that the certificate has less than 1 day before it expires.
-
Is Expired: This Boolean attribute indicates whether a certificate has expired or not. If you want to allow certificate renewal only when the certificate is near expiry and not after it has expired, use this attribute in authorization policy condition.
Authorization Policy Condition for Certificate Renewal
You can use the CertRenewalRequired simple condition (available by default) in authorization policy to ensure that a certificate (expired or about to expire) is renewed before Cisco ISE processes the request further.
CWA Redirect to Renew Certificates
If a user certificate is revoked before its expiry, Cisco ISE checks the CRL published by the CA and rejects the authentication request. In case, if a revoked certificate has expired, the CA may not publish this certificate in its CRL. In this scenario, it is possible for Cisco ISE to renew a certificate that has been revoked. To avoid this, before you renew a certificate, ensure that the request gets redirected to Central Web Authentication (CWA) for a full authentication. You must create an authorization profile to redirect the user for CWA.
Configure Cisco ISE to Allow Users to Renew Certificates
You must complete the tasks listed in this procedure to configure Cisco ISE to allow users to renew certificates.
Before you begin
Configure a limited access ACL on the WLC to redirect a CWA request.
Procedure
Step 1 | |
Step 2 | |
Step 3 | |
Step 4 |
Update the Allowed Protocol Configuration
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Check the Allow Authentication of expired certificates to allow certificate renewal in Authorization Policy check box under the EAP-TLS protocol and EAP-TLS inner methods for PEAP and EAP-FAST protocols. Requests that use the EAP-TLS protocol will go through the NSP flow. For PEAP and EAP-FAST protocols, you must manually configure Cisco AnyConnect for Cisco ISE to process the request. |
Step 3 |
Click Submit. |
What to do next
Create an Authorization Policy Profile for CWA Redirection
Before you begin
Ensure that you have configured a limited access ACL on the WLC.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Click Add. |
Step 3 |
Enter a name for the authorization profile. For example, CertRenewal_CWA. |
Step 4 |
Check the Web Redirection (CWA, DRW, MDM, NSP, CPP) check box in the Common Tasks area. |
Step 5 |
Choose Centralized Web Auth from the drop-down list and the limited access ACL. |
Step 6 |
Check the Display Certificates Renewal Message check box. The URL-redirect attribute value changes and includes the number of days for which the certificate is valid. |
Step 7 |
Click Submit. |
![]() Note |
If you have configured the following Device Registration WebAuth (DRW) policies for wireless devices in Cisco ISE 1.2:
After upgrading to ISE 1.3 or above version, you must update the DRW-Allow policy condition as follows:
|
What to do next
Create an Authorization Policy Rule to Renew Certificates
Before you begin
Ensure that you have created an authorization profile for central web authentication redirection.
Enable Policy Sets on
.Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose . |
Step 2 |
Click Create Above. |
Step 3 |
Enter a name for the new rule. |
Step 4 |
Choose the following simple condition and result: If CertRenewalRequired EQUALS True, then choose the authorization profile that you created earlier (CertRenewal_CWA) for the permission. |
Step 5 |
Click Save. |
What to do next
When you access the corporate network with a device whose certificate has expired, click Renew to reconfigure your device.
Enable BYOD Settings in the Guest Portal
For a user to be able to renew a personal device certificate, you must enable the BYOD settings in the chosen guest portal.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Choose .
|
Step 2 |
From BYOD Settings, check the Allow employees to use personal devices on the network check box. |
Step 3 |
Click Save. |
Certificate Renewal Fails for Apple iOS Devices
When you use ISE to renew the endpoint certificates on Apple iOS devices, you might see a “Profiled Failed to Install” error message. This error message appears if the expiring or expired network profiles were signed by a different Admin HTTPS certificate than the one that is used in processing the renewal, either on the same Policy Service Node (PSN) or on another PSN.
As a workaround, use a multi-domain SSL certificate, which is commonly referred to as Unified Communications Certificate (UCC), or a wildcard certificate for Admin HTTPS on all PSNs in the deployment.