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← Back to Cisco IOS Switch NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-220617

CAT I (High)

The Cisco switch must be configured to use at least two authentication servers to authenticate users prior to granting administrative access.

Rule ID

SV-220617r1156817_rule

STIG

Cisco IOS Switch NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R7

CCIs

CCI-000370

Discussion

Centralized management of user accounts and authentication increases the administrative access to the switch. 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.

Check Content

Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify the device is configured to use at least two authentication servers as the primary source for authentication as shown in the example below:

aaa new-model
!
aaa authentication CONSOLE group radius local
aaa authentication login LOGIN_AUTHENTICATION group radius local
…
…
…
ip http authentication aaa login-authentication LOGIN_AUTHENTICATION
ip http secure-server
…
…
…
radius-server host x.x.x.x auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813 key xxxxxxx
radius-server host x.x.x.x auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813 key xxxxxxx
…
…
…
line con 0
 exec-timeout 5 0
 login authentication CONSOLE
line vty 0 1
 exec-timeout 5 0
 login authentication LOGIN_AUTHENTICATION

If the Cisco switch is not configured to use at least two authentication servers to authenticate users prior to granting administrative access, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Step 1: Configure the Cisco switch to use at least two authentication servers as shown in the example below:

SW4(config)#radius host 10.1.48.2 key xxxxxx
SW4(config)#radius host 10.1.48.3 key xxxxxx

Step 2: Configure the authentication order to use the authentication servers as the primary source for authentication as shown in the example below:

SW4(config)#aaa authentication CONSOLE group radius local

SW4(config)#aaa authentication login LOGIN_AUTHENTICATION group radius local

Step 3: Configure all network connections associated with device management to use the authentication servers for login authentication:

SW4(config)#line vty 0 1
SW4(config-line)#login authentication LOGIN_AUTHENTICATION
SW4(config-line)#exit
SW4(config)#line con 0
SW4(config-line)#login authentication CONSOLE
SW4(config-line)#exit 
SW4(config)#ip http authentication aaa login-authentication LOGIN_AUTHENTICATION