Question 120
An ISE administrator troubleshoots the following: A network-access policy is configured to ignore directory outage and silently authenticate all unknown usernames using a catch-all local account. Which technical behavior is MOST relevant to this design?
Explanation
Correct Answer
Identity-source failover must not turn a directory error into unconditional account acceptance; the authorization decision still requires validated identity. This behavior directly governs the stated requirement. The recommended action is: Replace the catch-all fallback with an explicit supported identity-store and failure policy that denies unauthorized identities. The acceptance result is: An unknown test principal is denied even when the primary identity source is unavailable, while approved continuity behavior is recorded.
Incorrect Answers
Track EAP certificate chain, identity mapping, and renewal as distinct controls. The repeat risk here is different: Document and test certificate naming conventions during enrollment-template changes. A directly relevant preventive control is: Identity-source failover must not turn a directory error into unconditional account acceptance; the authorization decision still requires validated identity.
Alert on ISE node time drift and authoritative NTP reachability. The repeat risk here is different: Document and test certificate naming conventions during enrollment-template changes. A directly relevant preventive control is: Identity-source failover must not turn a directory error into unconditional account acceptance; the authorization decision still requires validated identity.
Use a carefully scoped low-impact 802.1X design with a preauthentication ACL limited to required bootstrap services. The repeat risk here is different: Document and test certificate naming conventions during enrollment-template changes. A directly relevant preventive control is: Identity-source failover must not turn a directory error into unconditional account acceptance; the authorization decision still requires validated identity.