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Cisco IOS Switch RTR Security Technical Implementation Guide

Overview

Version Date Finding Count (53) Downloads
3 2024-06-06 CAT I (High): 4 CAT II (Medium): 38 CAT III (Low): 11 Excel JSON XML
Stig Description
This Security Technical Implementation Guide is published as a tool to improve the security of Department of Defense (DOD) information systems. The requirements are derived from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 and related documents. Comments or proposed revisions to this document should be sent via email to the following address: disa.stig_spt@mail.mil.
Classified Public Sensitive  
I - Mission Critical Classified I - Mission Critical Public I - Mission Critical Sensitive II - Mission Critical Classified II - Mission Critical Public II - Mission Critical Sensitive III - Mission Critical Classified III - Mission Critical Public III - Mission Critical Sensitive

Findings - MAC III - Mission Critical Public

Finding ID Severity Title Description
V-220471 High The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to restrict it from accepting outbound IP packets that contain an illegitimate address in the source address field via egress filter or by enabling Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF). A compromised host in an enclave can be used by a malicious platform to launch cyberattacks on third parties. This is a common practice in "botnets", which are a collection of compromised computers using malware to attack other computers or networks. DDoS attacks frequently leverage IP source address spoofing to...
V-220455 High The Cisco PE switch must be configured to block any traffic that is destined to the IP core infrastructure. IP addresses can be guessed. Core network elements must not be accessible from any external host. Protecting the core from any attack is vital for the integrity and privacy of customer traffic as well as the availability of transit services. A compromise of the IP core can result in an...
V-220440 High The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to deny network traffic by default and allow network traffic by exception. A deny-all, permit-by-exception network communications traffic policy ensures that only connections that are essential and approved are allowed. This requirement applies to both inbound and outbound network communications traffic. All inbound and outbound traffic must be denied by default. Firewalls and perimeter switches should only allow traffic through that is...
V-220428 High The Cisco switch must be configured to protect against or limit the effects of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks by employing control plane protection. The Route Processor (RP) is critical to all network operations because it is the component used to build all forwarding paths for the data plane via control plane processes. It is also instrumental with ongoing network management functions that keep the routers and links available for providing network services. Any...
V-237777 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to drop IPv6 packets containing a Hop-by-Hop or Destination Option extension header with an undefined option type. The optional and extensible natures of the IPv6 extension headers require higher scrutiny since many implementations do not always drop packets with headers that it cannot recognize, and hence could cause a Denial-of-Service on the target device. In addition, the type, length, value (TLV) formatting provides the ability for headers...
V-237775 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to drop IPv6 packets containing the NSAP address option within Destination Option header. The optional and extensible natures of the IPv6 extension headers require higher scrutiny since many implementations do not always drop packets with headers that it cannot recognize, and hence could cause a Denial-of-Service on the target device. In addition, the type, length, value (TLV) formatting provides the ability for headers...
V-237773 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to drop IPv6 packets containing an extension header with the Endpoint Identification option. The optional and extensible natures of the IPv6 extension headers require higher scrutiny since many implementations do not always drop packets with headers that it cannot recognize, and hence could cause a Denial-of-Service on the target device. In addition, the type, length, value (TLV) formatting provides the ability for headers...
V-237771 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to drop IPv6 packets containing a Destination Option header with invalid option type values. These options are intended to be for the Hop-by-Hop header only. The optional and extensible natures of the IPv6 extension headers require higher scrutiny since many implementations do not always drop packets with headers that it cannot recognize. Hence, this could cause a Denial-of-Service on the target device. In addition,...
V-237765 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to drop IPv6 packets containing a Hop-by-Hop header with invalid option type values. These options are intended to be for the Destination Options header only. The optional and extensible natures of the IPv6 extension headers require higher scrutiny since many implementations do not always drop packets with headers that it cannot recognize and hence could cause a Denial-of-Service on the target device. In...
V-237763 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured drop IPv6 packets with a Routing Header type 0, 1, or 3-255. The routing header can be used maliciously to send a packet through a path where less robust security is in place, rather than through the presumably preferred path of routing protocols. Use of the routing extension header has few legitimate uses other than as implemented by Mobile IPv6. The Type...
V-237761 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to drop IPv6 undetermined transport packets. One of the fragmentation weaknesses known in IPv6 is the undetermined transport packet. This packet contains an undetermined protocol due to fragmentation. Depending on the length of the IPv6 extension header chain, the initial fragment may not contain the layer four port information of the packet.
V-237758 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to suppress Router Advertisements on all external IPv6-enabled interfaces. Many of the known attacks in stateless autoconfiguration are defined in RFC 3756 were present in IPv4 ARP attacks. To mitigate these vulnerabilities, links that have no hosts connected such as the interface connecting to external gateways must be configured to suppress router advertisements.
V-237755 Medium The Cisco switch must not be configured to use IPv6 Site Local Unicast addresses. As currently defined, site local addresses are ambiguous and can be present in multiple sites. The address itself does not contain any indication of the site to which it belongs. The use of site-local addresses has the potential to adversely affect network security through leaks, ambiguity, and potential misrouting as...
V-237749 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to have Cisco Express Forwarding enabled. The Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) switching mode replaces the traditional Cisco routing cache with a data structure that mirrors the entire system routing table. Because there is no need to build cache entries when traffic starts arriving for new destinations, CEF behaves more predictably when presented with large volumes of...
V-220473 Medium The Cisco PE switch must be configured to ignore or drop all packets with any IP options. Packets with IP options are not fast-switched and therefore must be punted to the switch processor. Hackers who initiate denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on switches commonly send large streams of packets with IP options. Dropping the packets with IP options reduces the load of IP options packets on the switch. The...
V-220472 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to block all packets with any IP options. Packets with IP options are not fast switched and henceforth must be punted to the switch processor. Hackers who initiate denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on switches commonly send large streams of packets with IP options. Dropping the packets with IP options reduces the load of IP options packets on the switch....
V-220467 Medium The Cisco multicast Designated switch (DR) must be configured to set the shortest-path tree (SPT) threshold to infinity to minimalize source-group (S, G) state within the multicast topology where Any Source Multicast (ASM) is deployed. ASM can have many sources for the same groups (many-to-many). For many receivers, the path via the RP may not be ideal compared with the shortest path from the source to the receiver. By default, the last-hop switch will initiate a switch from the shared tree to a source-specific SPT...
V-220466 Medium The Cisco multicast Designated switch (DR) must be configured to limit the number of mroute states resulting from Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Host Membership Reports. The current multicast paradigm can let any host join any multicast group at any time by sending an IGMP or MLD membership report to the DR. In a Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) Sparse Mode network, the DR will send a PIM Join message for the group to the RP. Without...
V-220465 Medium The Cisco multicast Designated switch (DR) must be configured to filter the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Report messages to allow hosts to join a multicast group only from sources that have been approved by the organization. Real-time multicast traffic can entail multiple large flows of data. Large unicast flows tend to be fairly isolated (i.e., someone doing a file download here or there), whereas multicast can have broader impact on bandwidth consumption, resulting in extreme network congestion. Hence, it is imperative that there is multicast admission...
V-220462 Medium The Cisco multicast switch must be configured to bind a Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) neighbor filter to interfaces that have PIM enabled. PIM is a routing protocol used to build multicast distribution trees for forwarding multicast traffic across the network infrastructure. PIM traffic must be limited to only known PIM neighbors by configuring and binding a PIM neighbor filter to interfaces that have PIM enabled. If a PIM neighbor filter is not...
V-220461 Medium The Cisco multicast switch must be configured to disable Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) on all interfaces that are not required to support multicast routing. If multicast traffic is forwarded beyond the intended boundary, it is possible that it can be intercepted by unauthorized or unintended personnel. Limiting where, within the network, a given multicast group's data is permitted to flow is an important first step in improving multicast security. A scope zone is an...
V-220460 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to enforce a Quality-of-Service (QoS) policy to limit the effects of packet flooding denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. DoS is a condition when a resource is not available for legitimate users. Packet flooding distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are referred to as volumetric attacks and have the objective of overloading a network or circuit to deny or seriously degrade performance, which denies access to the services that normally traverse...
V-220456 Medium The Cisco PE switch must be configured with Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF) loose mode enabled on all CE-facing interfaces. The uRPF feature is a defense against spoofing and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks by verifying if the source address of any ingress packet is reachable. To mitigate attacks that rely on forged source addresses, all provider edge switches must enable uRPF loose mode to guarantee that all packets received from a...
V-220454 Medium The Cisco PE switch providing MPLS Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (L2VPN) services must be configured to authenticate targeted Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) sessions used to exchange virtual circuit (VC) information using a FIPS-approved message authentication code algorithm. LDP provides the signaling required for setting up and tearing down pseudowires (virtual circuits used to transport Layer 2 frames) across an MPLS IP core network. Using a targeted LDP session, each PE switch advertises a virtual circuit label mapping that is used as part of the label stack imposed...
V-220453 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to only permit management traffic that ingresses and egresses the out-of-band management (OOBM) interface. The OOBM access switch will connect to the management interface of the managed network elements. The management interface can be a true OOBM interface or a standard interface functioning as the management interface. In either case, the management interface of the managed network element will be directly connected to the...
V-220452 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to block all outbound management traffic. For in-band management, the management network must have its own subnet in order to enforce control and access boundaries provided by Layer 3 network nodes, such as switches and firewalls. Management traffic between the managed network elements and the management network is routed via the same links and nodes as...
V-220451 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to have Proxy ARP disabled on all external interfaces. When Proxy ARP is enabled on a switch, it allows that switch to extend the network (at Layer 2) across multiple interfaces (LAN segments). Because proxy ARP allows hosts from different LAN segments to look like they are on the same segment, proxy ARP is only safe when used between...
V-220447 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to filter egress traffic at the internal interface on an inbound direction. Access lists are used to separate data traffic into that which it will route (permitted packets) and that which it will not route (denied packets). Secure configuration of switches makes use of access lists to restrict access to services on the switch itself as well as filter traffic passing through...
V-220446 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to filter ingress traffic at the external interface on an inbound direction. Access lists are used to separate data traffic into that which it will route (permitted packets) and that which it will not route (denied packets). Secure configuration of switches makes use of access lists to restrict access to services on the switch itself as well as filter traffic passing through...
V-220445 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to filter traffic destined to the enclave in accordance with the guidelines contained in DoD Instruction 8551.1. Vulnerability assessments must be reviewed by the System Administrator, and protocols must be approved by the Information Assurance (IA) staff before entering the enclave. Access control lists (ACLs) are the first line of defense in a layered security approach. They permit authorized packets and deny unauthorized packets based on port...
V-220443 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to block inbound packets with source Bogon IP address prefixes. Packets with Bogon IP source addresses should never be allowed to traverse the IP core. Bogon IP networks are RFC1918 addresses or address blocks that have never been assigned by the IANA or have been reserved.
V-220442 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to only allow incoming communications from authorized sources to be routed to authorized destinations. Unrestricted traffic may contain malicious traffic that poses a threat to an enclave or to other connected networks. Additionally, unrestricted traffic may transit a network, which uses bandwidth and other resources. Traffic can be restricted directly by an access control list (ACL), which is a firewall function, or by Policy...
V-220441 Medium The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to enforce approved authorizations for controlling the flow of information between interconnected networks in accordance with applicable policy. Information flow control regulates authorized information to travel within a network and between interconnected networks. Controlling the flow of network traffic is critical so it does not introduce any unacceptable risk to the network infrastructure or data. An example of a flow control restriction is blocking outside traffic claiming to...
V-220438 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to produce audit records containing information to establish the source of the events. Without establishing the source of the event, it is impossible to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack. To compile an accurate risk assessment and provide forensic analysis, security personnel need to know the source of the event. In addition to logging where events...
V-220437 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to produce audit records containing information to establish where the events occurred. Without establishing where events occurred, it is impossible to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack. To compile an accurate risk assessment and provide forensic analysis, it is essential for security personnel to know where events occurred, such as switch components, modules, device identifiers,...
V-220435 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to have Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) redirect messages disabled on all external interfaces. The ICMP supports IP traffic by relaying information about paths, routes, and network conditions. Switches automatically send ICMP messages under a wide variety of conditions. Redirect ICMP messages are commonly used by attackers for network mapping and diagnosis.
V-220434 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to have Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) mask reply messages disabled on all external interfaces. The ICMP supports IP traffic by relaying information about paths, routes, and network conditions. Switches automatically send ICMP messages under a wide variety of conditions. Mask Reply ICMP messages are commonly used by attackers for network mapping and diagnosis.
V-220433 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to have Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) unreachable messages disabled on all external interfaces. The ICMP supports IP traffic by relaying information about paths, routes, and network conditions. Switches automatically send ICMP messages under a wide variety of conditions. Host unreachable ICMP messages are commonly used by attackers for network mapping and diagnosis.
V-220431 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to have gratuitous ARP disabled on all external interfaces. A gratuitous ARP is an ARP broadcast in which the source and destination MAC addresses are the same. It is used to inform the network about a host IP address. A spoofed gratuitous ARP message can cause network mapping information to be stored incorrectly, causing network malfunction.
V-220427 Medium The Cisco switch must not be configured to have any zero-touch deployment feature enabled when connected to an operational network. Network devices that are configured via a zero-touch deployment or auto-loading feature can have their startup configuration or image pushed to the device for installation via TFTP or Remote Copy (rcp). Loading an image or configuration file from the network is taking a security risk because the file could be...
V-220423 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to enable routing protocol authentication using FIPS 198-1 algorithms with keys not exceeding 180 days of lifetime. A rogue router could send a fictitious routing update to convince a site's perimeter router to send traffic to an incorrect or even a rogue destination. This diverted traffic could be analyzed to learn confidential information about the site's network or used to disrupt the network's ability to communicate with...
V-220419 Medium The Cisco switch must be configured to enforce approved authorizations for controlling the flow of information within the network based on organization-defined information flow control policies. Information flow control regulates where information is allowed to travel within a network and between interconnected networks. The flow of all network traffic must be monitored and controlled so it does not introduce any unacceptable risk to the network infrastructure or data. Information flow control policies and enforcement mechanisms are...
V-237751 Low The Cisco switch must be configured to advertise a hop limit of at least 32 in Switch Advertisement messages for IPv6 stateless auto-configuration deployments. The Neighbor Discovery protocol allows a hop limit value to be advertised by routers in a Router Advertisement message being used by hosts instead of the standardized default value. If a very small value was configured and advertised to hosts on the LAN segment, communications would fail due to the...
V-220464 Low The Cisco multicast Designated switch (DR) must be configured to filter the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Report messages to allow hosts to join only multicast groups that have been approved by the organization. Real-time multicast traffic can entail multiple large flows of data. Large unicast flows tend to be fairly isolated (i.e., someone doing a file download here or there), whereas multicast can have broader impact on bandwidth consumption, resulting in extreme network congestion. Hence, it is imperative that there is multicast admission...
V-220463 Low The Cisco multicast edge switch must be configured to establish boundaries for administratively scoped multicast traffic. If multicast traffic is forwarded beyond the intended boundary, it is possible that it can be intercepted by unauthorized or unintended personnel. Administrative scoped multicast addresses are locally assigned and are to be used exclusively by the enterprise network or enclave. Administrative scoped multicast traffic must not cross the enclave...
V-220459 Low The Cisco P switch must be configured to enforce a Quality-of-Service (QoS) policy to provide preferred treatment for mission-critical applications. Different applications have unique requirements and toleration levels for delay, jitter, bandwidth, packet loss, and availability. To manage the multitude of applications and services, a network requires a QoS framework to differentiate traffic and provide a method to manage network congestion. The Differentiated Services Model (DiffServ) is based on per-hop...
V-220458 Low The Cisco PE switch must be configured to enforce a Quality-of-Service (QoS) policy to provide preferred treatment for mission-critical applications. Different applications have unique requirements and toleration levels for delay, jitter, bandwidth, packet loss, and availability. To manage the multitude of applications and services, a network requires a QoS framework to differentiate traffic and provide a method to manage network congestion. The Differentiated Services Model (DiffServ) is based on per-hop...
V-220450 Low The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to have Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) disabled on all external interfaces. CDP is a Cisco proprietary neighbor discovery protocol used to advertise device capabilities, configuration information, and device identity. CDP is media-and-protocol-independent as it runs over Layer 2; therefore, two network nodes that support different Layer 3 protocols can still learn about each other. Allowing CDP messages to reach external network...
V-220449 Low The Cisco perimeter switch must be configured to have Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) disabled on all external interfaces. LLDP is a neighbor discovery protocol used to advertise device capabilities, configuration information, and device identity. LLDP is media-and-protocol-independent as it runs over Layer 2; therefore, two network nodes that support different Layer 3 protocols can still learn about each other. Allowing LLDP messages to reach external network nodes provides...
V-220439 Low The Cisco switch must be configured to disable the auxiliary port unless it is connected to a secured modem providing encryption and authentication. The use of POTS lines to modems connecting to network devices provides clear text of authentication traffic over commercial circuits that could be captured and used to compromise the network. Additional war dial attacks on the device could degrade the device and the production network. Secured modem devices must be...
V-220436 Low The Cisco switch must be configured to log all packets that have been dropped at interfaces via an access control list (ACL). Auditing and logging are key components of any security architecture. It is essential for security personnel to know what is being done or attempted to be done, and by whom, to compile an accurate risk assessment. Auditing the actions on network devices provides a means to recreate an attack or...
V-220432 Low The Cisco switch must be configured to have IP directed broadcast disabled on all interfaces. An IP directed broadcast is a datagram sent to the broadcast address of a subnet that is not directly attached to the sending machine. The directed broadcast is routed through the network as a unicast packet until it arrives at the target subnet, where it is converted into a link-layer...
V-220424 Low The Cisco switch must be configured to have all inactive Layer 3 interfaces disabled. An inactive interface is rarely monitored or controlled and may expose a network to an undetected attack on that interface. Unauthorized personnel with access to the communication facility could gain access to a switch by connecting to a configured interface that is not in use. If an interface is no...