Authentication prompt does not appear on iOS when notifications exist in Notification Center - SEP Mobile

Products

• Endpoint Protection Mobile

Issue/Introduction

Users on iOS devices may not see the drop-down authentication banner after establishing a VPN tunnel to Cloud SWG. This occurs even when the VPN icon is visible and the connection appears successful but remains unauthenticated.

Symptoms:

• VPN establishes successfully on the iOS device.
• No drop-down banner appears to prompt for SAML authentication.
• Traffic is treated as unauthenticated in Cloud SWG.
• The device may have existing, unread notifications in the iOS Notification Center.

Environment

• iOS (All Versions)
• Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile (SEP Mobile)
• Cloud Secure Web Gateway (Cloud SWG)
• SAML Authentication enabled

Cause

The iOS operating system may suppress new authentication banners if the Notification Center already contains active notifications. The SEP Mobile agent previously did not force the authentication prompt to the top of the stack if other notifications were detected.

Resolution

This issue is fixed in SEP Mobile release 6.26.0 and higher. The fix ensures the WSS authentication notification is more visible by replacing existing notifications in the Notification Center, forcing the prompt to appear to the user. Upgrade the SEP Mobile app on the iOS device to the latest available version.