V-202132

Discussion

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. A network boundary device is a piece of networking hardware that sits at the edge of a network, controlling the flow of data traffic between the internal network and external networks like the internet. It acts as a gatekeeper, enforcing security policies and protecting the internal network from unauthorized access and malicious attacks. Having a second authentication server delivers a defense in depth approach for critical boundary devices.

Check Content

Review the network device configuration to verify that the device is configured to use at least one authentication server as a primary source for authentication. For boundary devices, verify that the device is configured to use at least two authentication servers for authentication.

If the network device is not configured to use at least one authentication server for the purpose of authenticating users prior to granting administrative access, this is a finding.

If the network boundary device is not configured to use at least two authentication servers for the purpose of authenticating users prior to granting administrative access, this is a finding.