Hash your password when connecting through wired 802.1x authentication

netplan has been the default network configuration tool since Ubuntu 20. Several hash solutions based on netplan didn’t work in practice, so I switched to the ifupdown for configuration.


Current os version: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

Install ifupdown

sudo apt install ifupdown net-tools

Configuration

wpa_supplicant configuration for the network.

ifconfig    # find your network device name, just find the one you want to use. For me it's "enp0s31f6"
echo -n plaintext_password_here | iconv -t UTF-16LE | openssl md4	# generate hashed password (you need to use appropriate hash method to generate. md4 is corresponding to MSCHAPV2 authentication in phase2)

Create and edit the configuration file wpa_supplicant_enp0s31f6.conf (any file name you want) under the /etc/wpa_supplicant folder. Replace your hased password (in the form of hash:your_hashed_password) and identity.

network={
    key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
    eap=PEAP
    identity="****"
    password=hash:bc67...8c
    phase2="autheap=MSCHAPV2"
}

interface configuration

Edit the /etc/network/interface as below, remember to replace the network device name and wpa configuration file.

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

# the loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# the primary network interface
allow-hotplug enp0s31f6
iface enp0s31f6 inet dhcp

wpa-driver wired
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant_enp0s31f6.conf

Disable current network manager

Disable any services related to systemd-networkd and NetworkManager, like:

sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager.service

sudo systemctl stop systemd-networkd.socket
sudo systemctl disable systemd-networkd.socket

sudo systemctl stop systemd-networkd.service
sudo systemctl disable systemd-networkd.service

Reboot

Reboot and check whether it can automatically connect to the network.

Reference

  1. How to switch back networking to /etc/network/interfaces on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

  2. Manual of 802.1x Authentication for Wired Access (CUHK)

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