WAF Cloud Authentication Issue Troubleshooting

WAF Cloud Authentication Issue Troubleshooting

August 22, 2024 | NSFOCUS

If the virtual product uses cloud authentication, it needs to communicate with the cloud authentication center periodically every day to complete the authentication and ensure availability.

You can confirm the authorization mode under System Management -> System Tools -> License -> Authorized by. For example, in the image below, the device uses cloud authorization.

If the device fails to communicate with the cloud authentication center for a continuous number of days, it will enter an unauthorized status, causing the engines to be deactivated, and unable to perform any configuration or upgrade processes. If you encounter issues with cloud authentication failure or authorization entering an offline state, you can try the following preliminary troubleshooting steps. If the issue persists, please contact the support team for further assistance.

1. Check DNS Configuration

Ensure that the device’s DNS is properly configured under System Management -> Network Configuration -> DNS Configuration to resolve the cloud authorization address.

2. Verify Network Connection

Network connectivity often needs to be checked when the ‘Cloud authorization center address communication timeout’ and ‘Communicate Exception’ errors are reported during reauthorization. Check the reachability of the network connection between the product and the cloud authorization center. You can perform a ping/trace route from the product to the authorization center. The product utilizes a random port to communicate with the cloud authorization (auth.nsfocusglobal.com, auth.api.nsfocus.com) on port 5050 for the authorization process. Ensure there is no port-blocking issue.

It’s important to note that this communication is bidirectional, so both inbound and outbound communication should be allowed.

The left side of the diagram shows the situation where devices in the network environment have access to communicate with the cloud authorization center. On the right side, it illustrates the scenario where communication between devices and the cloud authorization center is blocked in the network environment.

Try to capture packets from the product management IP addresses to the cloud authorization center to further analyze the communication.

3. Try changing the cloud authorization center to exclude the network fluctuation issue

If the issue persists, please feel free to contact the support team for further assistance.