Cisco IOS XE Router NDM STIG Version Comparison

There are 2 differences between versions v3 r3 (Jan. 30, 2025) (the "left" version) and v3 r5 (July 2, 2025) (the "right" version).

Check CISC-ND-001130 was changed between these two versions. Green, underlined text was added, red, struck-out text was removed.

The regular view of the left check and right check may be easier to read.

Title

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

Check Content

Review the Cisco router configuration to verify that it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below. snmp-server group V3GROUP v3 auth read V3READ write V3WRITE snmp-server view V3READ iso included snmp-server view V3WRITE iso included snmp-server host x.x.x.x version 3 auth V3USER Authentication used by the SNMP users can be viewed via the show snmp user command as shown in the example below. R4#show below: R4#show snmp user User name: V3USER Engine ID: 800000090300C2042B540000 storage-type: nonvolatile active Authentication Protocol: SHA Privacy Protocol: None Group-name: V3GROUP If the Cisco router is not configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated HMAC, this is a finding.

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). internet). A remote connection is any connection with a device communicating through an external network (e.g., the Internet). Because 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.

Fix

Configure the Cisco router to authenticate SNMP messages as shown in the example below. R4(config)#snmp-server below: R4(config)#snmp-server group V3GROUP v3 auth read V3READ write V3WRITE R4(config)#snmp-server user V3USER V3GROUP v3 auth sha xxxxxxx R4(config)#snmp-server view V3READ iso included R4(config)#snmp-server view V3WRITE iso included R4(config)#snmp-server host x.x.x.x version 3 auth V3USER