| Finding ID |
Severity |
Title |
Description |
|
V-266170
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to use cryptographic algorithms approved by NSA to protect NSS for remote access to a classified network. |
Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The VPN gateway must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards approved by the Federal Government since this provides assurance they have been tested and validated.
NIST cryptographic algorithms are approved by NSA... |
|
V-266165
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must configure certificate path validation to ensure revoked user credentials are prohibited from establishing an allowed session. |
A certificate's certification path is the path from the end entity certificate to a trusted root certification authority (CA). Certification path validation is necessary for a relying party to make an informed decision regarding acceptance of an end entity certificate.
Certification path validation includes checks such as certificate issuer trust,... |
|
V-266155
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must terminate all network connections associated with a communications session at the end of the session or after 15 minutes of inactivity. |
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. Quickly terminating an idle session will also free up resources committed by the managed... |
|
V-266153
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must configure certification path validation to ensure revoked machine credentials are prohibited from establishing an allowed session. |
A certificate's certification path is the path from the end entity certificate to a trusted root certification authority (CA). Certification path validation is necessary for a relying party to make an informed decision regarding acceptance of an end entity certificate.
Certification path validation includes checks such as certificate issuer trust,... |
|
V-266152
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user authentication intermediary services must uniquely identify and authenticate users using redundant authentication servers and multifactor authentication (MFA). |
To ensure accountability and prevent unauthenticated access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated to prevent potential misuse and compromise of the system.
Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors). Organizational users (and any processes acting on behalf of... |
|
V-266150
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to prohibit or restrict the use of unnecessary or prohibited functions, ports, protocols, and/or services, including those defined in the PPSM CAL and vulnerability assessments. |
To prevent unauthorized connection of devices, unauthorized transfer of information, or unauthorized tunneling (i.e., embedding of data types within data types), organizations must disable or restrict unused or unnecessary physical and logical ports/protocols on information systems.
ALGs are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of... |
|
V-266144
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user access control intermediary services must implement attribute- and content-based inspection of the source, destination, headers, and/or content of the communications traffic. |
Information flow control regulates where information is allowed to travel within a network. 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 commonly employed by organizations... |
|
V-266143
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user access control intermediary services must enforce approved authorizations for logical access to information and system resources by employing identity-based, role-based, and/or attribute-based security policies. |
Successful authentication must not automatically give an entity access to an asset or security boundary. The lack of authorization-based access control could result in the immediate compromise of and unauthorized access to sensitive information. All DOD systems must be properly configured to incorporate access control methods that do not rely... |
|
V-266139
|
High |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing intermediary services for remote access must use FIPS-validated cryptographic algorithms, including TLS 1.2 at a minimum. |
Without confidentiality protection mechanisms, unauthorized individuals may gain access to sensitive information via a remote access session.
Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, non-organization-controlled network. Remote access methods include broadband and wireless connections. Remote access... |
|
V-266174
|
Medium |
The VPN Gateway must use Always On VPN connections for remote computing. |
Allowing remote users to manually toggle a VPN connection can create critical security risks. With Always On VPN, if a secured connection to the gateway is lost, hybrid-working users will simply be disconnected from the internet until the issue is solved.
"Always On" is a term that describes a VPN... |
|
V-266173
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing remote access intermediary services must be configured to route sessions to an IDPS for inspection. |
Remote access devices, such as those providing remote access to network devices and information systems, which lack automated, capabilities increase risk and makes remote user access management difficult at best.
Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an... |
|
V-266172
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing remote access intermediary services must disable split-tunneling for remote clients' VPNs. |
Split tunneling would in effect allow unauthorized external connections, making the system more vulnerable to attack and to exfiltration of organizational information.
A VPN hardware or software client with split tunneling enabled provides an unsecured backdoor to the enclave from the internet. With split tunneling enabled, a remote client has... |
|
V-266171
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP must be configured to identify and authenticate all endpoint devices or peers before establishing a connection. |
Without identifying and authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. |
|
V-266169
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to set a Maximum Session Timeout value of eight hours or less. |
The Maximum Session Timeout setting configures a limit on the maximum amount of time a user's session is active without needing to reauthenticate. If the value is set to zero, the user's session is active until either the user terminates the session or the Inactivity Timeout value is reached (the... |
|
V-266167
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to restrict a consistent inbound IP for the entire management session. |
This security measure helps limit the effects of denial-of-service attacks by employing antisession hijacking security safeguards. Session hijacking, also called cookie hijacking, is the exploitation of a valid computer session to gain unauthorized access to an application. The attacker steals (or hijacks) the cookies from a valid user and attempts... |
|
V-266166
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must not use the On-demand Cert Auth VPE agent as part of the APM Policy Profiles. |
By requiring mutual authentication before any communication, it becomes significantly challenging for attackers to impersonate a client or server and exploit vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the encryption of all data transmitted between the client and server ensures that even if an attacker intercepts the data, it remains unintelligible without the correct keys.... |
|
V-266161
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must generate a log record when unauthorized network services are detected. |
Unauthorized or unapproved network services lack organizational verification or validation, and therefore may be unreliable or serve as malicious rogues for valid services.
Examples of network services include service-oriented architectures (SOAs), cloud-based services (e.g., infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, or software as a service), cross-domain, Voice Over... |
|
V-266160
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must detect use of network services that have not been authorized or approved by the information system security manager (ISSM) and information system security officer (ISSO), at a minimum. |
Unauthorized or unapproved network services lack organizational verification or validation, and therefore may be unreliable or serve as malicious rogues for valid services.
Examples of network services include service-oriented architectures (SOAs), cloud-based services (e.g., infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, or software as a service), cross-domain, Voice Over... |
|
V-266159
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must automatically update malicious code protection mechanisms. |
The malicious software detection functionality on network elements needs to be constantly updated to identify new threats as they are discovered.
All malicious software detection functions must come with an update mechanism that automatically updates the application and any associated signature definitions. The organization (including any contractor to the organization)... |
|
V-266158
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must check the validity of all data inputs except those specifically identified by the organization. |
Invalid user input occurs when a user inserts data or characters into an application's data entry fields and the application is unprepared to process that data. This results in unanticipated application behavior potentially leading to an application or information system compromise. Invalid input is one of the primary methods employed... |
|
V-266157
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must protect against or limit the effects of known and unknown types of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks by employing pattern recognition pre-processors. |
If the network does not provide safeguards against DoS attacks, network resources will be unavailable to users.
Installation of content filtering gateways and application layer firewalls at key boundaries in the architecture mitigates the risk of DoS attacks. These attacks can be detected by matching observed communications traffic with patterns... |
|
V-266156
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must employ rate-based attack prevention behavior analysis. |
If the network does not provide safeguards against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, network resources will be unavailable to users.
Installation of content filtering gateways and application layer firewalls at key boundaries in the architecture mitigates the risk of DoS attacks. These attacks can be detected by matching observed communications traffic with... |
|
V-266154
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user authentication intermediary services using PKI-based user authentication must implement a local cache of revocation data to support path discovery and validation in case of the inability to access revocation information via the network. |
Without configuring a local cache of revocation data, there is the potential to allow access to users who are no longer authorized (users with revoked certificates).
The intent of this requirement is to require support for a secondary certificate validation method using a locally cached revocation data, such as Certificate... |
|
V-266151
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user authentication intermediary services must require users to reauthenticate when the user's role or information authorizations is changed. |
Without reauthentication, users may access resources or perform tasks for which they do not have authorization.
In addition to the reauthentication requirements associated with session locks, organizations may require reauthentication of individuals and/or devices in other situations, including (but not limited to) the following circumstances:
1. When authenticators change;
2.... |
|
V-266149
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance that provides intermediary services for HTTP must inspect inbound and outbound HTTP traffic for protocol compliance and protocol anomalies. |
Application protocol anomaly detection examines application layer protocols such as HTTP to identify attacks based on observed deviations in the normal RFC behavior of a protocol or service. This type of monitoring allows for the detection of known and unknown exploits which exploit weaknesses of commonly used protocols.
Since protocol... |
|
V-266148
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance that intermediary services for FTP must inspect inbound and outbound FTP communications traffic for protocol compliance and protocol anomalies. |
Application protocol anomaly detection examines application layer protocols such as FTP to identify attacks based on observed deviations in the normal RFC behavior of a protocol or service. This type of monitoring allows for the detection of known and unknown exploits which exploit weaknesses of commonly used protocols.
Since protocol... |
|
V-266147
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance that provides intermediary services for SMTP must inspect inbound and outbound SMTP and Extended SMTP communications traffic for protocol compliance and protocol anomalies. |
Application protocol anomaly detection examines application layer protocols such as SMTP to identify attacks based on observed deviations in the normal RFC behavior of a protocol or service. This type of monitoring allows for the detection of known and unknown exploits which exploit weaknesses of commonly used protocols.
Since protocol... |
|
V-266146
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must generate event log records that can be forwarded to the centralized events log. |
Without generating audit records that log usage of objects by subjects and other objects, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident, or identify those responsible for one. The device logs internal users associated with denied outgoing communications traffic posing a threat to... |
|
V-266145
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user access control intermediary services must display the Standard Mandatory DOD-approved Notice and Consent Banner before granting access to the network. |
|
|
V-266142
|
Medium |
To protect against data mining, the F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must prevent SQL injection attacks launched against data storage objects, including, at a minimum, databases, database records, and database fields. |
Data mining is the analysis of large quantities of data to discover patterns and is used in intelligence gathering. Failure to prevent attacks launched against organizational information from unauthorized data mining may result in the compromise of information.
SQL injection attacks are the most prevalent attacks against web applications and... |
|
V-266141
|
Medium |
To protect against data mining, the F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must prevent code injection attacks launched against application objects including, at a minimum, application URLs and application code. |
Data mining is the analysis of large quantities of data to discover patterns and is used in intelligence gathering. Failure to prevent attacks launched against organizational information from unauthorized data mining may result in the compromise of information.
Injection attacks allow an attacker to inject code into a program or... |
|
V-266140
|
Medium |
To protect against data mining, the F5 BIG-IP appliance providing content filtering must prevent code injection attacks from being launched against data storage objects, including, at a minimum, databases, database records, queries, and fields. |
Data mining is the analysis of large quantities of data to discover patterns and is used in intelligence gathering. Failure to prevent attacks launched against organizational information from unauthorized data mining may result in the compromise of information.
Injection attacks allow an attacker to inject code into a program or... |
|
V-266138
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing intermediary services for remote access communications traffic must ensure inbound and outbound traffic is monitored for compliance with remote access security policies. |
Automated monitoring of remote access traffic allows organizations to detect cyberattacks and also ensure ongoing compliance with remote access policies by inspecting connection activities of remote access capabilities.
Remote access methods include both unencrypted and encrypted traffic (e.g., web portals, web content filter, TLS, and webmail). With inbound TLS inspection,... |
|
V-266137
|
Medium |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance providing user access control intermediary services must limit the number of concurrent sessions to one or an organization-defined number for each access profile. |
The "Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP" setting in an APM Access Profile is a security configuration that limits the number of simultaneous sessions that can be initiated from a single IP address. This is particularly helpful in preventing a session flood, where a hacker might attempt to overwhelm... |
|
V-266175
|
Low |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to set the "Max In Progress Sessions per Client IP" value to 10 or an organizational-defined number. |
The "Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP" setting in an APM Access Profile is a security configuration that limits the number of simultaneous sessions that can be initiated from a single IP address. This is particularly helpful in preventing a session flood, where a hacker might attempt to overwhelm... |
|
V-266168
|
Low |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to limit authenticated client sessions to initial session source IP. |
The "Restrict to Single Client IP” is a safeguard against session hijacking or cookie theft. Even if an attacker manages to steal a session cookie, the cookie cannot be used from a different source IP address that the address used to initiate the session. This security measure is set within... |
|
V-266164
|
Low |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to disable the persistent cookie flag. |
For BIG-IP APM deployments with connectivity resources (such as Network Access, Portal Access, etc.), BIG-IP APM cookies cannot be set as Persistent. This is by design since cookies are stored locally on the client's hard disk, and thus could be exposed to unauthorized external access. For some deployments of the... |
|
V-266163
|
Low |
The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to enable the secure cookie flag. |
To guard against cookie hijacking, only the BIG-IP APM controller and client must be able to view the full session ID. Session cookies are set only after the SSL handshake between the BIG-IP APM system and the user has completed, ensuring that the session cookies are protected from interception with... |
|
V-266162
|
Low |
When the Access Profile Type is LTM+APM and it is not using any connectivity resources (such as Network Access, Portal Access, etc.) in the VPE, the F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to enable the HTTP Only flag. |
To guard against cookie hijacking, only the BIG-IP APM controller and client must be able to view the full session ID. Setting the APM HTTP Only flag ensures that a third party will not have access to the active session cookies.
This option is only applicable to the LTM+APM access... |
