August 7, 2023

Using the UA VPN

With special interest in access to the Mirror Lab.

I want to do this from linux, so let's see if they make that possible.

Start by using this link

Specify "push" for the method (this expects you to have the "Duo Mobile" app on your phone. Use your usual NetID and password. I select connection option 1 (UASSL Client).

Once I authenticate, I get a button that says "Download for Linux". It downloads a 9.3 M "sh" file. 

cisco-secure-client-linux64-5.0.03072-core-vpn-webdeploy-k9.sh
I then do this: 
su
bash cisco-secure-client-linux64-5.0.03072-core-vpn-webdeploy-k9.sh
I get: 
Installing Cisco Secure Client...
Migrating /opt/cisco/anyconnect directory to /opt/cisco/secureclient directory
egrep: warning: egrep is obsolescent; using grep -E
Extracting installation files to /tmp/vpn.LHULji/vpninst579228886.tgz...
Unarchiving installation files to /tmp/vpn.LHULji...
Starting Cisco Secure Client Agent...
Done!
Exiting now.

You can learn about how to use this here:

To launch the client, you do: 

gtk-launch com.cisco.secureclient.gui
This brings up a GUI with a place to enter "Connect to:" I have no idea what I should enter here.

Try: vpn.arizona.edu -- This seems to work. It now brings up some new entry fields that ask me for Group, username, password, second password (use "push" for second password). For Group, I go to the bottom and select UASSL-2Factor.

This does something, but I can't say that it has "worked". What is does do is to demolish any ssh connections I have at the time, and make it impossible to launch new ones. It has done a bunch of stuff with my linux network setup.

I adds this new network interface: 

ifconfig -a
cscotun0: flags=4305  mtu 1390
        inet 10.139.25.213  netmask 255.255.128.0  destination 10.139.25.213
        inet6 fe80::3ce2:6a21:3cf9:8753  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20
        inet6 fe80::d517:a0ae:41e5:5439  prefixlen 126  scopeid 0x20
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 500  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 882  bytes 658603 (643.1 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 859  bytes 88088 (86.0 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

And it does this to my routing table: 

route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
default         0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         U     0      0        0 cscotun0
default         agate           0.0.0.0         UG    100    0        0 eno1
10.139.0.0      0.0.0.0         255.255.128.0   U     0      0        0 cscotun0
192.168.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 cscotun0
192.168.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     100    0        0 eno1
agate           0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 eno1
192.168.122.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 cscotun0
192.168.122.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 virbr0
vpn.arizona.edu agate           255.255.255.255 UGH   0      0        0 eno1
I had to reboot to get back to a usable configuration (at least as far as making ssh connections to my desktop at the U or A).

This will require more study and learning. There must be some documentation somewhere. At least the next time I try this, I will be sure not to have an ssh connections active with anything going on in them that I care about.

openconnect

This is in /usr/sbin and some linux people use it to deal with VPN. It has been on my system a long time and has nothing to do with this Cisco client I just installed.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's home page / [email protected]