Lion Cipher Lab
Set up network authentication with FreeRADIUS
- Identity & Access Management
- Intermediate
- ~45 min
- Free · no account required
Why it matters
Almost every time you join a corporate Wi-Fi network, dial up a VPN, or log into an office switch, a RADIUS server somewhere decided whether to let you in. It is the quiet workhorse of enterprise network access: one central place that says yes or no instead of a separate password stored on every device. Standing one up yourself — and watching it accept a good password and reject a bad one — turns 'RADIUS' from a mystery acronym into something you actually understand, and it is a core building block of identity and access management work.
What you'll learn
- How RADIUS and AAA (authentication, authorization, accounting) work
- Running FreeRADIUS in Docker
- Defining users and shared secrets
- Testing auth with radtest and reading Access-Accept / Access-Reject
- Reading the FreeRADIUS debug output (freeradius -X)
- Understanding PAP vs CHAP/EAP and why legacy RADIUS is weak on the wire
Steps in this lab
- What RADIUS and AAA actually are
- Run a FreeRADIUS server in Docker
- Add a test user (and meet the shared secret)
- Test authentication with radtest
- Watch the decision live in debug mode
- PAP vs CHAP — and why legacy RADIUS is weak
- Judgment: when RADIUS is the right tool