The network device must authenticate network management, SNMP, and NTP endpoint devices before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-55255	SRG-APP-000395-NDM-000310	SV-69501r1_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. For network device management, this has been determined to be network management device addresses, SNMP authentication, and NTP authentication.

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. For network device management, this has been determined to be network management device addresses, SNMP authentication, and NTP authentication.

STIG	Date
Network Device Management Security Requirements Guide	2015-12-20

Details

Check Text ( C-55875r1_chk )
Review the network device configuration to determine if the network device authenticates network management, SNMP, and NTP endpoint devices before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based. If the network device does not authenticate the endpoint devices before establishing a connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-55875r1_chk )

Review the network device configuration to determine if the network device authenticates network management, SNMP, and NTP endpoint devices before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based.

If the network device does not authenticate the endpoint devices before establishing a connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-60119r1_fix)
Configure the network device to authenticate network management, SNMP, and NTP endpoint devices before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based.