Title

The Cisco ACI must be configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC). (Cat II impact)

Discussion

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.

Check Content

1. Navigate to System >> System Settings. 2. Click "Fabric Security". 3. Click the "Policy" tab. 4. Verify FIPS Mode is set to "Enable". If FIPS mode is not set to "Enable", this is a finding.

Fix Text

1. Navigate to System >> System Settings. 2. Click "Fabric Security". 3. Click the "Policy" tab. 4. Set FIPS Mode to "Enable".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-271917r1064310_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-271917

Group Title: SRG-APP-000395-NDM-000310

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.