FortiWLC – Device Fingerprinting

Device Fingerprinting

Device fingerprinting allows collection of various attributes about a device connecting to your network. The collected attributes can fully or partially identify individual devices, including the client’s OS, device type, and browser being used.

Device Fingerprinting can provide more information for the station and allows system administrators to be more aware of the types of devices in use and take necessary actions. You can view the details of the devices via Monitor > Dashboard. You can import, export, add, delete, or restore the devices using the fingerprint command and the show fingerprints command displays the device fingerprints stored in the system. See Command Reference Guide for more information on the CLI commands.

Configuration Using WebUI

Configuration > Devices > Device Fingerprint

By default, this page lists the configured device OS types that can be monitored.

Device Fingerprinting

Adding a New Device OS

To add a new device OS type, click the ADD button and enter the device name and the associated hexadecimal characters (starting with 37 or 3c) and then click SAVE to add this device to the list.

Modifying an Existing Device OS

To modify an existing entry, select the checkbox for that entry and click the EDIT button. Make the required changes in the pop up box and click the SAVE button.

Device Fingerprinting

Export Device OS Details

To export the existing list of devices to another controller, click the checkbox in the column header to select all entries. Then click the EXPORT button to create a text file with the entries.

Import New Device OS Details

To import new entries, click the IMPORT button and browse the location with the text file. Then click the SAVE button to add the new list.

Configuration Using CLI

The CLI command fingerprint has the following options:

default(15)(config)# fingerprint ?

add                    (10) Adds description and hexadecimal characters. delete                 (10) Deletes description and hexadecimal characters. export                 (10) Adds description and hexadecimal characters. import                 (10) Adds description and hexadecimal characters. restore                (10) Restores configuration file.

  • add – To add new device OS type
  • delete – Remove an existing device OS type
  • import – Specify the filename to import device OS types. The file must be available in /opt/ meru/images folder.
  • export – To export the current list of device OS types. The exported file is stored as a .txt file in /opt/meru/images directory

Device Fingerprinting


Having trouble configuring your Fortinet hardware or have some questions you need answered? Check Out The Fortinet Guru Youtube Channel! Want someone else to deal with it for you? Get some consulting from Fortinet GURU!

This entry was posted in Administration Guides, FortiWLC on by .

About Mike

Michael Pruett, CISSP has a wide range of cyber-security and network engineering expertise. The plethora of vendors that resell hardware but have zero engineering knowledge resulting in the wrong hardware or configuration being deployed is a major pet peeve of Michael's. This site was started in an effort to spread information while providing the option of quality consulting services at a much lower price than Fortinet Professional Services. Owns PacketLlama.Com (Fortinet Hardware Sales) and Office Of The CISO, LLC (Cybersecurity consulting firm).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.