V-214665

Discussion

Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity on the network. Bidirectional authentication provides stronger safeguards to validate the identity of other devices for connections that are of greater risk (e.g., remote connections). Bidirectional authentication solutions include, but are not limited to, IEEE 802.1x and Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and Radius server with EAP-Transport Layer Security (TLS) authentication. A network connection is any connection with a device that communicates through a network (e.g., local area network, wide area network, or the Internet). Authentication must use a form of cryptography to ensure a high level of trust and authenticity.

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Verify that the network device uniquely identifies network-connected endpoint devices. This requirement is not applicable to Arista switches when not used as an access switch.

802.1X must be configured on any interface where there is an applicable endpoint device connected. This is demonstrated by viewing the running-config via the "show dot1x all" command and validating the following lines are present in the configuration:

Dot1X Information for Ethernet[X]
--------------------------------------------
PortControl : auto
HostMode : single-host
QuietPeriod : [value]
TxPeriod : [value]
ReauthPeriod : 3600 seconds
MaxReauthReq : 2

!

802.1X must also be globally enabled on the switch using the "dot1x system-auth-control" command from the configuration mode interface. When this is configured, the following line will be visible in the running-config:

dot1x-system-auth-control

802.1X is dependent on a properly configured RADIUS server for authentication. Refer to the RADIUS configuration example for validation of properly configured AAA services. Additionally, the user must specify to use the RADIUS server as an 802.1X authenticator with the "aaa authentication dot1x default group [radius]" command from the configuration mode interface, replacing the bracketed variable with either the group name of the RADIUS server group, or leaving it as is to authenticate against all RADIUS servers. When properly configured, the following line is visible in the running-config:

aaa authentication dot1x default group radius

If 802.1X is not configured on necessary ports, or is not globally enabled on the switch, or if it is not set to authenticate supplicants via RADIUS, this is a finding.