The Cisco switch must be configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC).

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-220500	CISC-ND-001130	SV-220500r961506_rule		Medium

Description
Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. Bidirectional authentication provides stronger safeguards to validate the identity of other devices for connections that are of greater risk. A local connection is any connection with a device communicating without the use of a network. A network connection is any connection with a device that communicates through a network (e.g., local area or wide area network, Internet). A remote connection is any connection with a device communicating through an external network (e.g., the Internet). Because of the challenges of applying this requirement on a large scale, organizations are encouraged to only apply the requirement to those limited number (and type) of devices that truly need to support this capability.

Description

Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. Bidirectional authentication provides stronger safeguards to validate the identity of other devices for connections that are of greater risk. A local connection is any connection with a device communicating without the use of a network. A network connection is any connection with a device that communicates through a network (e.g., local area or wide area network, Internet). A remote connection is any connection with a device communicating through an external network (e.g., the Internet). Because of the challenges of applying this requirement on a large scale, organizations are encouraged to only apply the requirement to those limited number (and type) of devices that truly need to support this capability.

STIG	Date
Cisco NX OS Switch NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-06-06

Details

Check Text ( C-22215r940001_chk )
Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below: snmp-server user NETOPS auth sha 5Er23@#as178 priv aes-128 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx snmp-server host 10.1.48.10 traps version 3 priv NETOPS Authentication used by the SNMP users can be viewed via the show snmp user command as shown in the example below: SW1# show snmp user ______________________________________________________________ SNMP USERS ______________________________________________________________ User Auth Priv(enforce) Groups acl_filter ____ ____ ___________ ______ __________ NETOPS sha aes-128 network-operator If the Cisco switch is not configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated HMAC, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-22215r940001_chk )

Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below:

snmp-server user NETOPS auth sha 5Er23@#as178 priv aes-128 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

snmp-server host 10.1.48.10 traps version 3 priv NETOPS

Authentication used by the SNMP users can be viewed via the show snmp user command as shown in the example below:

SW1# show snmp user
______________________________________________________________
SNMP USERS
______________________________________________________________

User Auth Priv(enforce) Groups acl_filter
____ ____ ___________ ______ __________
NETOPS sha aes-128 network-operator

If the Cisco switch is not configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated HMAC, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-22204r940002_fix)
Configure the Cisco switch to authenticate SNMP messages as shown in the example below: SW1(config)# snmp-server user NETOPS auth sha xxxxxxxxxxxxx priv aes-128 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx SW1(config)# snmp-server host 10.1.48.10 traps version 3 priv NETOPS