Cisco Secure Access Control System (ACS) 5.2 and User Change Password (UCP)

Date: Feb 14, 2011 By Premdeep Banga. Article is provided courtesy of Cisco Press.
This article teaches you how to use the User Change Password (UCP) service in Cisco ACS to allow users defined in the ACS internal database to first authenticate themselves and then change their own password.

As the ACS evolved, one of the less known features of ACS has also evolved at a significant level: User Change Password (UCP). If you had Cisco Secure Access Control Server version 4.x, 3.x or earlier; and you only required a local ACS database for user account management, then you are familiar it. This is a service which lets users change their account password through a GUI based interactive interface (for both ACS 4.x and ACS 5.x) or CLI of their operating systems (only for ACS 5.x).

The User Change Password (UCP) service allows users defined in the ACS internal database to first authenticate themselves, and then change their own password. This service can be utilized to aid the IT staff by lowering the requests for password change. A permanent link or tool can be provided to users to facilitate their own password change.

The UCP service available in ACS 5.x can be used to create custom web-based applications and that can be deployed in an enterprise’s internal/external web portals to facilitate user password change as self-help.

In this article I will cover UCP under two main sections.

  • UCP through HTTP(S).
  • UCP through Command Line.

UCP through HTTP(S)

To enable password change through GUI for ACS local database users, broadly we need to follow these steps:

  • Enable UCP ACS web interface on ACS.
  • Configure web server to cater UCP GUI interface.

We will use the following, in addition to ACS:

  • Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
  • Apache Tomcat 6.0.24 (To server JSP pages)

Let us begin with configuring UCP through HTTP(S):

  1. Get the required files to deploy on web server from ACS. Navigate to System Administration > Downloads > User Change Password > UCP web application example, as shown in figure 1.

    2. Figure 1

    ACS will ask you to save ‘UCP.war’ file. Save it.

  2. Install and start the tomcat service.
    3. export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk/
sudo aptitude install tomcat6 tomcat6-admin tomcat6-common
sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat6 start
or
sudo service tomcat6 start

    NOTE

    First ensure what Java you are using on your server and specify JAVA_HOME accordingly.

  3. Place the extracted files from ‘UCP.war’ from step 1 under /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/ROOT:
    4. $ ls /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/ROOT/
cisco_logo.JPG index.jsp META-INF WEB-INF
$
  4. Enable UCP ACS web interface on ACS:
    5. acs52/admin# show acs-config-web-interface
migration interface is enabled
ucp interface is disabled
view interface is enabled
acs52/admin#
acs52/admin# acs config-web-interface ucp enable
acs52/admin# show acs-config-web-interface
migration interface is enabled
ucp interface is enabled
view interface is enabled
acs52/admin#
  5. Check the UCP GUI page to ensure that password change is working using HTTP.

    6. Access the tomcat server using any browser, at http://<tomcat-server-ip>:8080.

    You should see output as shown in figure 2.

    Figure 2

    Now, ensure that password change is works. Use any local account on ACS local database and try to change its password using the UCP GUI interface as shown in figure 3 and figure 4.

    Figure 3

    Figure 4

    If you try to use a wrong password, you will page as shown in figure 5.

    Figure 5

    NOTE

    The communication between tomcat server and the ACS server is always secure using SSL. If someone is eavesdropping between ACS and the Tomcat server, they won’t be able to interpret the actual communication.

    Although communication between Tomcat server and ACS server is secure, unless we change communication between end clients accessing UCP web page secure, an eavesdropper can still see the old and new password using simple network tools.

    There are different ways to implement SSL between clients and Tomcat server. We will use JSSE implementation provided as part of the Java runtime.

    For more information on how to enable SSL on Tomcat 6, please refer to following link:

    http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/ssl-howto.html

  6. Enable SSL on UCP GUI.

    7. Create a certificate key store by executing following command:

    /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA

    Where /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk is my JAVA_HOME (refer to step 2).

    The keystore location would be under your home directory; for example, for user ‘pbanga’ it would be /home/prem/.keystore.

    Create a backup of default server.xml file:

    ~$sudo cp /var/lib/tomcat6/conf/server.xml /var/lib/tomcat6/conf/server.xml.orig

    Locate the following code in server.xml file and uncomment it.

    <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
 maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"
 clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" />

    Now add the keystore that we created above as

    <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
 maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"
 clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" keystoreFile="/home/pbanga/.keystore" />

    Restart the Tomcat 6 service:

    ~$sudo service tomcat6 restart
* Stopping Tomcat servlet engine tomcat6 	 [ OK ]
* Starting Tomcat servlet engine tomcat6 	 [ OK ]

    At this stage, if you launch a web browser at https://<tomcat-server-ip>:8443, you should be able to establish a secure connection as shown in figure 6.

    Figure 6

    It would also be good to add automatic re-direction, to ensure that if anyone tries to use HTTP it gets re-directed to HTTPS connection automatically.

    To enable automatic re-direction we need to make a change in file /var/lib/tomcat6/conf/web.xml

    Put the below code under </welcome-file-list> and right above </web-app>.

    <security-constraint>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>Protected Context</web-resource-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</web-resource-collection>
<!– auth-constraint goes here if you requre authentication –>
<user-data-constraint>
<transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
</user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>

    Now restart Tomcat 6 service.

    ~$ sudo service tomcat6 restart 
 * Stopping Tomcat servlet engine tomcat6 	[ OK ] 
 * Starting Tomcat servlet engine tomcat6 	[ OK ] 
~$
UCP through Command Line

UCP through Command Line

In this section we will see how to make use of the default script provided with ACS to enable users to change their password on ACS local database.

Let us begin with installing and configuring components that will enable UCP.

  1. Get the required files from ACS. Navigate to System Administration > Downloads > User Change Password > Python Script for Using the User Change Password Web Service (along with installation instructions), as shown in figure 7.

    2. Figure 7

    ACS will prompt you to save a file ‘pythonUCP.zip’. Save it.

  2. Next we need to install Python 2.4.

    3. For Windows we can get a windows installer for Python 2.4 from http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4.4/.

    For Linux, we can get the source and compile from above link.

    I already had Python 2.6.5 installed on my Ubuntu box. To make script work we need 2.4.x, so I installed it as

    ~$ wget http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive/pool/main/p/python2.4/
   python2.4-minimal_2.4.6-1ubuntu3.2.9.10.1_i386.deb -O python2.4-minimal.deb
~$ wget http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive/pool/main/p/python2.4/
   python2.4_2.4.6-1ubuntu3.2.9.10.1_i386.deb -O python2.4.deb
~$ wget http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive/pool/main/p/python2.4/
   python2.4-dev_2.4.6-1ubuntu3.2.9.10.1_i386.deb -O python2.4-dev.deb
~$ sudo dpkg -i python2.4-minimal.deb python2.4.deb python2.4-dev.deb
  3. Extract the contents of pythonUCP.zip.

    4. Extract files using any unzipping utility.

    On Windows:

    Figure 8

    On Ubuntu:

    ~$ unzip pythonUCP.zip 
Archive: pythonUCP.zip
 creating: Linux/
 extracting: Linux/fpconst-0.7.2.tar.gz 
 inflating: Linux/PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm 
 inflating: Linux/SOAPpy-0.11.6.tar.gz 
 creating: Windows/
 inflating: Windows/fpconst.zip 
 inflating: Windows/PyXML-0.8.4.win32-py2.4.exe 
 inflating: Windows/SOAPpy-0.11.6.zip 
 inflating: readme.txt 
 inflating: ucp.py 
~$ 
~$ cd Linux/
~$ ls
fpconst-0.7.2.tar.gz PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm SOAPpy-0.11.6.tar.gz
  4. Install PyXML.

    5. On Windows, simply execute the ‘PyXML-0.8.4.win32-py2.4.exe’ file.

    On Ubuntu:

    ~$ cd Linux/
~/Linux$ ls
fpconst-0.7.2 fpconst-0.7.2.tar.gz PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm SOAPpy-0.11.6 SOAPpy-0.11.6.tar.gz
~/Linux$ sudo alien -k PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm 
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
error: incorrect format: unknown tag
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
warning: PyXML-0.8.4-9.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
pyxml_0.8.4-9_i386.deb generated
~/Linux$
~/Linux$ sudo dpkg -i pyxml_0.8.4-9_i386.deb 
Selecting previously deselected package pyxml.
(Reading database ... 251982 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking pyxml (from pyxml_0.8.4-9_i386.deb) ...
Setting up pyxml (0.8.4-9) ...
~/Linux$

    Ensure PyXML was installed successfully,

    On Windows run Python command line or GUI and confirm this as shown in figure 9.

    Figure 9

    On Ubuntu:

    ~$ python2.4
Python 2.4.6 (#2, Jan 21 2010, 23:27:36) 
[GCC 4.4.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import xml
>>> xml.__version__
'37894'
>>>
  5. Install fpconst.

    6. On Windows, unzip ‘fpconst.zip’ & execute as shown in figure 10.

    Figure 10

    On Ubuntu:

    ~/Linux$ tar -xvf fpconst-0.7.2.tar.gz 
fpconst-0.7.2/
fpconst-0.7.2/README
fpconst-0.7.2/fpconst.py
fpconst-0.7.2/setup.py
fpconst-0.7.2/PKG-INFO
~/Linux$
~/Linux$ cd fpconst-0.7.2/
~/Linux/fpconst-0.7.2$ ls
fpconst.py PKG-INFO README setup.py
~/Linux/fpconst-0.7.2$
~/Linux/fpconst-0.7.2$ sudo python2.4 setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
running install_lib
copying build/lib/fpconst.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/fpconst.py to fpconst.pyc
running install_egg_info
Writing /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/fpconst-0.7.2.egg-info
~/Linux/fpconst-0.7.2$

    Ensure fpconst was installed successfully from Python command line as shown in figure 11:

    Figure 11

  6. Install SOAPPy.

    7. On Windows extract ‘SOAPpy-0.11.6.zip’ & execute as shown in figure 12.

    Figure 12

    On Ubuntu:

    ~/Linux$ tar -xvf SOAPpy-0.11.6.tar.gz 
SOAPpy-0.11.6/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/test/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/test/__init__.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/test/test_t1.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/test/test_wsdl.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/test/test_wstools.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/test/test_wstools_net.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/Namespaces.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/TimeoutSocket.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/UserTuple.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/Utility.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/WSDLTools.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/XMLSchema.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/XMLname.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/wstools/__init__.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Client.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Config.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Errors.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/GSIServer.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/NS.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Parser.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/SOAP.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/SOAPBuilder.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Server.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Types.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/URLopener.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/Utilities.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/WSDL.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/__init__.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/SOAPpy/version.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/bid/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/bid/inventoryClient.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/bid/inventoryServer.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/bid/monitorClient.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/contrib/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/contrib/soap_cli.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/contrib/soap_handler.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/GettingStarted.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/GlobusSupport.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/MethodParameterNaming.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/WSDL.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/attrs.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/complexTypes.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/docs/simpleTypes.txt
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/BabelfishWSDLTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/SOAPtest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/TCtest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/TemperatureService.wsdl
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/alanbushTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/cardClient.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/cardServer.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/echoClient.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/echoHeader.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/echoServer.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/esj_test_client.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/esj_test_server.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/excelTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/largeDataTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/newsTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/quoteTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/simpleWSDL.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/speedTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/storageTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/testClient1.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/testWSDL.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/testleak.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/translateTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/weatherTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/whoisTest.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tests/xmethods.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tools/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/tools/interop2html.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/validate/
SOAPpy-0.11.6/validate/server.pem
SOAPpy-0.11.6/validate/silab.servers
SOAPpy-0.11.6/validate/silabclient.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/validate/silabserver.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/validate/soapware.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/ChangeLog
SOAPpy-0.11.6/LICENSE
SOAPpy-0.11.6/README
SOAPpy-0.11.6/RELEASE_INFO
SOAPpy-0.11.6/TODO
SOAPpy-0.11.6/setup.py
SOAPpy-0.11.6/PKG-INFO
~/Linux$ 
~/Linux$ cd SOAPpy-0.11.6
~/Linux/SOAPpy-0.11.6$ sudo python2.4 setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib
creating build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/__init__.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/GSIServer.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/SOAP.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/SOAPBuilder.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/URLopener.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/version.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Client.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Utilities.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/NS.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Config.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Parser.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Errors.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Types.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/Server.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
copying SOAPpy/WSDL.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy
creating build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/Namespaces.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/__init__.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/UserTuple.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/XMLname.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/XMLSchema.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/WSDLTools.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/Utility.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
copying SOAPpy/wstools/TimeoutSocket.py -> build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools
running install_lib
creating /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/__init__.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/GSIServer.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/SOAP.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/SOAPBuilder.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/URLopener.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/version.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Client.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Utilities.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/NS.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Config.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
creating /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/Namespaces.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/__init__.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/UserTuple.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/XMLname.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/XMLSchema.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/WSDLTools.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/Utility.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/wstools/TimeoutSocket.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Parser.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Errors.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Types.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/Server.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
copying build/lib/SOAPpy/WSDL.py -> /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/__init__.py to __init__.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/GSIServer.py to GSIServer.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/SOAP.py to SOAP.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/SOAPBuilder.py to SOAPBuilder.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/URLopener.py to URLopener.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/version.py to version.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Client.py to Client.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Utilities.py to Utilities.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/NS.py to NS.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Config.py to Config.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/Namespaces.py to Namespaces.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/__init__.py to __init__.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/UserTuple.py to UserTuple.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/XMLname.py to XMLname.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/XMLSchema.py to XMLSchema.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/WSDLTools.py to WSDLTools.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/Utility.py to Utility.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/wstools/TimeoutSocket.py to TimeoutSocket.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Parser.py to Parser.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Errors.py to Errors.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Types.py to Types.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/Server.py to Server.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy/WSDL.py to WSDL.pyc
running install_egg_info
Writing /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/SOAPpy-0.11.6.egg-info
~/Linux/SOAPpy-0.11.6$

    Ensure SOAPpy was installed successfully from Python command line as shown in figure 13:

    Figure 13

    At this stage we have all the required components to get ‘UCP.py’ to let user change their password.

  7. Execute UCP.py

    8. On Windows simply type ‘ucp.py’ and script will execute as shown in figure 14. The ‘ucp.py’ in this example is placed at C drive root location.

    Figure 14

    On Ubuntu:

    ~$ python2.4 ucp.py
Please enter ACS host name or IP address:
192.168.26.51
Please enter user name:
prem
Please enter old password:
alpha123!
Please enter new password:
alpha1234!
Success
~$
Summary

Summary

In the examples shown in this article, we did no customization on our end and used everything as is. Beyond the scope of this article, we can also customize UCP, so that it can be integrated into corporate web portals.

In ACS we can use Web Services Description Language (WDSL) to integrate UCP. The WSDL is an XML format that describes network services as a collection of ports that operate on messages. WSDL is extensible to allow the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that you use.

Resources

Resources

For more information on WSDL please refer to World Wide Web Consortium website.

For complete information on UCP and WSDL please refer to ‘Software Developer's Guide for the Cisco Secure Access Control System’.