MFA

You can enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to further protect your account. This can be enabled in Security Onion Console (SOC) by clicking the user icon in the upper right corner, clicking Settings, and then going to the Security tab.

TOTP

Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP) can be activated on a user account. TOTP requires the use of an authenticator app. Currently only Google Authenticator has been tested, however other authenticator apps that implement the time-based one-time password (TOTP) specification could also work.

If you have a user account on multiple Security Onion deployments with TOTP activated, they may be listed identically in your authenticator app. If so, you should be able to edit the listing in your authenticator app so that you can distinguish between them.

Warning

Please note that TOTP requires that both the Security Onion manager and the device supplying the TOTP code to have their system time set correctly. Otherwise, the TOTP code may be seen as invalid and rejected.

Note

If you lose access to your authenticator app, an administrator can reset your password using the Administration interface which will also remove the TOTP from your account.

WebAuthn Security Keys

WebAuthn allows the use of built-in mobile device biometric sensors, USB security devices, and other PKI-based security devices to authenticate users during the login process.

If the Security Onion installation has been configured to use security keys for MFA instead of passwordless logins then you can add one or more security keys to your account as a second authentication factor.

Note

If you lose access to your security key device, an administrator can reset your password using the Administration interface which will also remove the security keys from your account.

Important

The webauthn specification requires that the web server be accessed via a hostname. Therefore, IP addresses cannot be used to access SOC when utilizing webauthn. Also, the server’s TLS certificate must not have any errors. Consequently, self-signed certificates will only be permitted provided the certificate authority (CA) has also been imported into analyst’s browsers and/or operating systems, and marked as trusted.