CA Strong Authentication Administration Guide › Managing Global CA AuthMinder Configurations › Configuring Profiles and Policies › Configuring OATH OTP Settings › Configuring OATH OTP Authentication Policy

Configuring OATH OTP Authentication Policy

An OATH OTP Token authentication policy can be used to specify the following attributes related to OATH OTP-based authentication:

• User status: The status of the user, which can be active or inactive.

  Note: If the user status check is enabled, then the authentication for users in inactive state results in failure.

• Lockout criteria: The number of failed attempts after which the user’s credential are locked.
• Unlocking criteria: The number of hours after which a locked credential can be used again.

Follow these steps:

1. Click the Services and Server Configurations tab on the main menu.
2. Verify that the CA Strong Authentication tab in the submenu is active.
3. Under the OATH OTP Token section, click the Authentication link to display the OATH OTP Token Authentication Policy page.
4. Edit the fields in the Policy Configuration section, as required.

   Policy Configurations

   Create

   If you choose to create a new policy, then:

   • Select the Create option.
   • Specify the Configuration Name of the new policy in the field that appears.

   Update

   If you choose to update an existing policy, then select the policy that you want to update from the Select Configuration list that appears.

   Copy Configuration

   Enable this option if you want to create the policy by copying the configurations from an existing policy.

   Note: You can also copy from configurations that belong to other organizations that you have scope on.

   Available Configurations

   Select the policy from which the configurations will be copied.

   Authentication Look Ahead Count

   Specify the number of times the OATH OTP counter on the CA AuthMinder Server is increased to verify the OATH OTP entered by the user. The OATH OTP entered by the user is compared with all the OATH OTPs that are generated from current count - Authentication Look Back Count to current count + Authentication Look Ahead Count on the server, and if the OATH OTP entered by the user matches, then the user is authenticated.

   Note: If the client and server OATH OTP matches, then that count is set as the current count on the server.

   Authentication Look Back Count

   Specify the number of times the OATH OTP counter on the CA AuthMinder Server is decreased to verify the OATH OTP entered by the user.

   The OATH OTP entered by the user is compared with all the OATH OTPs that are generated from current count - Authentication Look Back Count to current count + Authentication Look Ahead Count on the server, and if the OATH OTP entered by the user matches, then the user is authenticated.

   Note: If the client and server OATH OTP matches, then that count is set as the current count on the server.

   Synchronization Look Ahead Count

   Specify the number of times the OATH OTP counter on the CA AuthMinder Server is increased to synchronize with the OATH OTP counter on the client device.

   To synchronize the client and the server OATH OTPs, the user has to provide two consecutive OATH OTPs and if these OATH OTPs match with the consecutive server OATH OTPs in the lookup range (count - Synchronization Look Back Count to current count + Synchronization Look Ahead Count), then the server counter is synchronized with the count corresponding to the second OATH OTP entered by the user.

   Synchronization Look Back Count

   Specify the number of times the OATH OTP counter on the CA AuthMinder Server is decreased to synchronize with the OATH OTP counter on the client device.

   To synchronize the client and the server OATH OTPs, the user has to provide two consecutive OATH OTPs and if these OATH OTPs match with the consecutive server OATH OTPs in the lookup range (count - Synchronization Look Back Count to current count + Synchronization Look Ahead Count), then the server counter is synchronized with the count corresponding to the second OATH OTP entered by the user.

   Lockout Credential After

   Specify the number of failed attempts after which the OATH OTP will be locked.

   Check User Status Before Authentication

   Select this option if you want to verify whether the user status is active, before authenticating them.

5. Expand the Advanced Configurations section by clicking the [+] sign.
6. Edit the fields in the section, as required.

   Advanced Configurations

   Issue Warning

   Specify the number of days before the warning is sent to the calling application about the user’s impending credential expiration.

   Allow Successful Authentication

   Specify the number of days for which the users can use an expired credential to successfully log in.

   Enable Automatic Credential Unlock

   Select this option if you want the credential to be automatically unlocked after the time you specify in the following field.

   This field is valid only if you specify the corresponding value in the Lockout Credential After field.

   Note: The credential does not get automatically unlocked after the unlock period. The credential has to be used for successful authentication after the unlock period to get it unlocked.

   Unlock After

   Specify the number of hours after which a locked credential can be used again for authentication.

   Alternate Processing Options

   The CA AuthMinder Server acts as a proxy and passes the authentication requests to other authentication servers, based on the following conditions:

   • User Not Found: If the user trying to authenticate is not present in the CA AuthMinder database, then the request is passed to the other server.
   • Credential Not Found: If the credential with which the user is trying to authenticate is not present in the CA AuthMinder database, then the request is passed to the other server.

   See "Configuring CA AuthMinder as RADIUS Proxy Server" for more information to enable this feature.

   Usage Type for Verification

   If you want the users to authenticate with the particular OATH OTP credential, then enter the name of its usage type in this field.

   If you do not specify the usage type, then the usage type mentioned in the default OATH OTP authentication policy is used.

7. Click Save.
8. Refresh all deployed CA AuthMinder Server instances. See Refresh a Server Instance for instructions about the procedure.