Title

The layer 2 switch must not have any switch ports assigned to the native VLAN. (Cat III impact)

Discussion

Double encapsulation can be initiated by an attacker who has access to a switch port belonging to the native VLAN of the trunk port. Knowing the victim’s MAC address and with the victim attached to a different switch belonging to the same trunk group, thereby requiring the trunk link and frame tagging, the malicious user can begin the attack by sending frames with two sets of tags. The outer tag that will have the attacker’s VLAN ID (probably the well-known and omnipresent default VLAN) is stripped off by the switch, and the inner tag that will have the victim’s VLAN ID is used by the switch as the next hop and sent out the trunk port.

Check Content

Review the switch configurations and examine all access switch ports. Verify that they do not belong to the native VLAN. If any access switch ports have been assigned to the same VLAN ID as the native VLAN, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure all access switch ports to a VLAN other than the native VLAN.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-206672r385561_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-206672

Group Title: SRG-NET-000512

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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