The Cisco switch must be configured to terminate all network connections associated with device management after five minutes of inactivity.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-220493	CISC-ND-000720	SV-220493r916298_rule		High

Description
Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle session will also free up resources committed by the managed network element. Terminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, de-allocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level, or de-allocating networking assignments at the application level if multiple application sessions are using a single, operating system-level network connection. This does not mean that the device terminates all sessions or network access; it only ends the inactive session and releases the resources associated with that session.

Description

Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle session will also free up resources committed by the managed network element. Terminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, de-allocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level, or de-allocating networking assignments at the application level if multiple application sessions are using a single, operating system-level network connection. This does not mean that the device terminates all sessions or network access; it only ends the inactive session and releases the resources associated with that session.

STIG	Date
Cisco NX OS Switch NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-05-05

Details

Check Text ( C-22208r916296_chk )
Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that all network connections associated with a device management have an idle timeout value set to five minutes or less as shown in the following example: line console exec-timeout 5 line vty exec-timeout 5 If the Cisco switch is not configured to terminate all network connections associated with a device management after five minutes of inactivity, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-22208r916296_chk )

Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that all network connections associated with a device management have an idle timeout value set to five minutes or less as shown in the following example:

line console
exec-timeout 5
line vty
exec-timeout 5

If the Cisco switch is not configured to terminate all network connections associated with a device management after five minutes of inactivity, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-22197r916297_fix)
Set the idle timeout value to five minutes or less on all configured login classes as shown in the example below: SW1(config)# line console SW1(config-console)# exec-timeout 5 SW1(config-console)# exit SW1(config)# line vty SW1(config-line)# exec-timeout 5