Knocs

A Knoc is the access rule your users see. It says who can request access to a resource and under what conditions. Several Knocs can share one integration.

Manage knocs under Admin > Knocs.

What a Knoc is made of

Every knoc points at one integration, the connection to the system it opens, and one integration can back many knocs (see the Integrations chapter). The knoc then sets who can request access, the users and groups you choose, and the rules that apply, either a trust policy (see the Trust Engine chapter) or legacy per-Knoc source restrictions. It also carries a name, icon and category so users can find it on their portal.

Creating a Knoc

Admin > Knocs > New opens the wizard. You need an agent before you start. See the Agents chapter.

The walkthrough below uses a FortiGate. Every vendor takes the same five steps and only the fields on Configure Settings differ, so each vendor's own page in the Integrations chapter is where those are listed.

Choose the vendor

Vendors are grouped by where access is enforced. Inline is a firewall or cloud control plane sitting in front of the service. On host is the protected machine itself. Reverse proxy is a proxy or CDN fronting it.

The vendor picker, grouped into Inline, On host and Reverse proxy

Step 1: the integration

If you already have an integration for this vendor, the wizard offers it here and the knoc reuses it, with no credentials to enter a second time. Create new integration adds another.

Choosing between an existing Fortinet integration and creating a new one

A new integration asks which agent reaches the device and what credentials it uses. Validate integration checks them against the device before you go on, and the panel beside the form shows how the server, agent and protected resource fit together.

A new FortiGate integration with the agent, URL and authorization token

Step 2: Configure Settings

This step is what the knoc writes to on the device, together with the name, icon and category your users see. The preview beside the form is the tile as it will appear on their portal.

Configure Settings with the address group, prefix, description and preview

Step 3: Knoc Options

Grant options cover whether the user clicks for access, whether a ticket number or TOTP code is required, and a shorter maximum duration than the server default. Trust Engine policy decides what happens when someone connects from somewhere unexpected. See the Trust Engine chapter.

Grant options and the Trust Engine policy chooser

A policy only starts deciding once the sources it reads are connected. Until then its restrictions show as Not evaluated and access is judged on the rest of the policy.

Step 4: Select users

Choose the users and groups who can request this access. A knoc with nobody assigned is created and simply appears on no one's portal.

Step 5: Review

Review lists everything you entered and runs a wider check than Step 1 did. Each result is tagged INTEGRATION or KNOC: the integration checks are the ones Step 1 could already run, and the knoc checks test what this knoc writes to, which did not exist yet at Step 1. A failing check halts the run and offers Back to settings.

The Review step with every check passing

Script backends get one extra step, Environment variables, between Knoc Options and Select users.

Managing Knocs

List. Admin > Knocs shows every knoc. Search and filter to find one.
Detail. Open a knoc to edit its integration, users and rules, and to see its grant history.

Access rules

A Knoc's access is decided by the trust policy attached to it. It weighs who is connecting, from where, and over what kind of network. See the Trust Engine chapter. A Knoc carried over from before the Trust Engine can keep its own per-Knoc source restrictions on Legacy; see the Legacy Knocs page.