KB43733 - On iOS 11.3 and above, Pulse Mobile users cannot connect to Pulse Connect Secure and Pulse Policy Secure with “Connecting Error – The server is not responding” message when using Duo Push with Duo Security or Microsoft Azure 2-way SMS

This articles describes an issue with iOS 11.3 and above, where Pulse Mobile users are unable connect to a PCS/PPS device  due to “Connecting Error – The server is not responding” message when using Duo Push with Duo Security or Microsoft Azure 2-way SMS.

On iOS 11.3, when the end user is attempting to authenticate with Duo Push from Duo Security or Microsoft Azure with 2-way SMS via Pulse Mobile for iOS, authentication will fail with the following error:

Connecting Error
​The server is not responding

Screenshot:


This issue occurs when all of the following conditions are met:

• Pulse Mobile for iOS is running on iOS 11.3 and above.  (This issue does not impact Pulse Mobile running on iOS 11.2 and below OR Pulse Mobile for Android.
• During authentication, the end user has to switch between Pulse Mobile and the third-party vendor MFA application to accept the MFA response.

Authentication scenarios that are impacted:

1. Using Duo Push from Duo Security
2. Microsoft Azure MFA with 2-way SMS

Authentication scenarios that are not impacted:

1. Using Phone Call mechanism from Duo Security
2. Google Authenticator integration with Pulse Connect Secure
3. Any MFA solution that sends a challenge to the PCS / PPS device where the end user receives a one-time password (OTP) prompt (similar to classic version of RSA, etc)

Pulse Secure will continue to update this article with additional authentication scenarios as they are confirmed.  

This issue is currently under investigation by Pulse Secure engineering team.

This issue is fixed in Pulse IOS Client 6.7.0 which is tentatively scheduled to be released in second Week of May 2018.
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In the meantime, the following workaround can be put in place:

Workaround:

1. Using Safari browser, login to the PCS / PPS device and launch the Pulse client.
2. ​For any MFA solution, use “Passcode”  for second factor instead of Push notification.
3. For Duo MFA passcode second factor, Pulse users can click on the option “Click here if you need to enter a second factor passcode”.  (See example below.)

4. For Duo MFA, configure the MFA response as a phone call instead of using Push notification.