Ubuntu / Kubuntu 17.04 pulse secure problem and solution

[mlysek]

With kubuntu /ubuntu 16.10 and pulse secure client 8.2r5, all dns lookups were properly redirected to the remote server when a remote vpn connection was active. After updating to kubuntu 17.04, some dns lookups were still using the local dns server. Specifically, chrome properly used the remote dns server, but firefox did not. On the console, nslooup would use the remote server, but ping did not.

A solution to this was to change a line in /etc/nsswitch.conf
-Was:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns
-Changed to:
hosts: files dns mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return]

After this change, all dns lookups use the remote server when pulse secure is connected. I found this solution based on information at:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/678372/chrome-and-firefox-can-not-resolve-the-same-host-name-dig-can

[zanyterp]

Thank you for sharing the solution to this problem
Do you know what split tunneling type is configured on the server?

[mlysek]

I'm not sure how to find this information. Is it in the pulsesvc.log file? I could ask our sys admins if that's necessary.

[zanyterp]

It would be on the configuration; hopefully your sysadmin or network team can let you know