Testing the FreeRADIUS Package¶

Testing the FreeRADIUS Package on a pfSense® firewall.

Test the FreeRADIUS configuration¶

FreeRADIUS offers an easy to use command line tool to check if the server is running and listening to incoming requests. An interface, a NAS/Client and a user must all be configured:

Add a User with the following configuration:
- Username: testuser
- Password: testpassword
Add a Client/NAS with the following configuration:
- IP-Address: 127.0.0.1
- Shared Secret: testing123
Add an interface with the following configuration:
- IP-Address: 127.0.0.1
- Interface-Type: Auth
- Port: 1812
SSH to the pfSense firewall and type in the following on the command line while FreeRADIUS is running (check before in System Log):
```
radtest testuser testpassword 127.0.0.1:1812 0 testing123
```

The following output should appear if everything was setup correctly:

: radtest testuser testpassword 127.0.0.1:1812 10 testing123
Sending Access-Request of id 1 to 127.0.0.1 port 1812
       User-Name = "testuser"
       User-Password = "testpassword"
       NAS-IP-Address = 192.168.0.22
       NAS-Port = 10
       Message-Authenticator = 0x00000000000000000000000000000000
rad_recv: Access-Accept packet from host 127.0.0.1 port 1812, id=1, length=20

The really necessary thing is Access-Accept. Check the system log for the following output:

radiusd[44793]: Login OK: [testuser/testpassword] (from client testing port 10)

If something was configured wrong (such as an incorrect username) then this will be displayed:

: radtest testser testpassword 127.0.0.1:1812 10 testing123
Sending Access-Request of id 104 to 127.0.0.1 port 1812
       User-Name = "testser"
       User-Password = "testpassword"
       NAS-IP-Address = 192.168.0.22
       NAS-Port = 10
       Message-Authenticator = 0x00000000000000000000000000000000
rad_recv: Access-Reject packet from host 127.0.0.1 port 1812, id=104, length=20

The Accesss-Reject packet is visible, and the system log will contain the following output:

radiusd[44793]: Login incorrect: [testser/testpassword] (from client testing port 10)

If the steps above do not work then do not need proceed with any other configuration. This is the first thing that should be tested.

There is a Windows test tool available as well. Another nice tool is the JRadius Framework, covered next.

Test FreeRADIUS performance with jRadius¶

jRadius is a tool to test a FreeRADIUS server. It can perform many different request types, numbers of requests, attributes and authentication methods. It can test how many requests a RADIUS server can answer at a time, to make sure that it will perform well in a specific environment. This tool needs a non-windows system with java to run. I tried with openSUSE:

Download JRadius Minimal (client).
Unzip the file with the following command:
```
unzip jradius-client-1.1.4-release.zip
```
Start the application with the following command:
```
sh simulator.sh
```

The application window will open. Fill out the fields:

RADIUS tab
- Transport: UDP
- RADIUS Server: 192.168.0.10
- Shared Secret: mysharedsecret
- Auth Port: 1812
- Acct Port: 1813
- Send Timeout: 10 (or fill in what the NAS offers as timeout to make test more “real”)
- Send Retries: 0 (or fill in what the NAS offers as timeout to make test more “real”)
- Requester Threads: 1 (To understand this option think about the number of NAS nodes. Every NAS is a Requester Thread. In worst case after a power cycle all NAS reboot at once so enter here the amount of NAS nodes)
- Requests per Thread: 1 (To understand this think about the number of hosts which are connected to this NAS at a time and when the NAS rebooted all clients will try to reauthenticate)
- Simulation Type: Auth only (if accounting is chosen, then additional attributes must be added later)
- Authentication Protocol: PAP (Change it to suit the needs of the site but TLS needs a client cert, PEAP users only the server cert from FreeRADIUS)
- Verify Standard: None
- Check Log RADIUS to log tab
Attributes tab:
- User-Name: myuser
- User-Password: mypass
- NAS-Port: 25 (any value is ok)
- NAS-IP-Address: 192.168.0.111 (IP of the NAS)
- Check all four attributes in AccessReq
RADIUS tab
- Click Start

Then the test will be performed. It could take some time and the display will show the number of requests can be handled per second and the response speed. If the server cannot handle the requests fast enough then think about increasing FreeRADIUS > Settings, Maximum Number of Threads. Do not increase this unlimited. It will help on peaks but if there is a high load all the time, think about a faster backend (MySQL instead of flat file). There is also a speed difference if the testuser in FreeRADIUS > Users is listed at the bottom of a 100 users long list or at the top. And there is a difference if there are many reply attributes like VLAN ID and so on.

After this performance test check the FreeRADIUS server as described in this chapter: FreeRADIUS package