The Juniper EX switch must be configured to use an authentication server for the purpose of authenticating users prior to granting administrative access.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-253941	JUEX-NM-000640	SV-253941r1001014_rule		High

Description
Centralized management of authentication settings increases the security of remote and nonlocal access methods. This control is particularly important protection against the insider threat. With robust centralized management, audit records for administrator account access to the organization's network devices can be more readily analyzed for trends and anomalies. The alternative method of defining administrator accounts on each device exposes the device configuration to remote access authentication attacks and system administrators with multiple authenticators for each network device.

Description

Centralized management of authentication settings increases the security of remote and nonlocal access methods. This control is particularly important protection against the insider threat. With robust centralized management, audit records for administrator account access to the organization's network devices can be more readily analyzed for trends and anomalies. The alternative method of defining administrator accounts on each device exposes the device configuration to remote access authentication attacks and system administrators with multiple authenticators for each network device.

STIG	Date
Juniper EX Series Switches Network Device Management Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-06-20

Details

Check Text ( C-57393r843854_chk )
Review the network device configuration to verify the device is configured to use an authentication server as the primary source for authentication. Verify the RADIUS and/or TACACS+ server addresses. [edit system] radius-server { secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA } tacplus-server { secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA } Verify the authentication order places the external authentication server first. [edit system] authentication-order [ radius tacplus password ]; Note: Only the global authentication order is required; all administrative access methods will honor the global setting unless configured separately. If the network device is not configured to use an authentication server to authenticate users prior to granting administrative access, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-57393r843854_chk )

Review the network device configuration to verify the device is configured to use an authentication server as the primary source for authentication. Verify the RADIUS and/or TACACS+ server addresses.

[edit system]
radius-server {

secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA

secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA
}
tacplus-server {

secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA

secret "hashed PSK"; ## SECRET-DATA
}

Verify the authentication order places the external authentication server first.
[edit system]
authentication-order [ radius tacplus password ];

Note: Only the global authentication order is required; all administrative access methods will honor the global setting unless configured separately.

If the network device is not configured to use an authentication server to authenticate users prior to granting administrative access, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-57344r843855_fix)
Configure the network device to use an authentication server. set system radius-server secret "" set system tacplus-server secret "" Configure the authentication order to use the authentication server as primary source for authentication. set system authentication-order radius set system authentication-order tacplus set system authentication-order password