Title

The SDN controller must be configured to protect against or limit the effects of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks by rate-limiting control-plane communications. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The SDN Controller is critical to all network operations because it is the component used to build all forwarding paths for the data plane via control-plane processes. It is also instrumental with network management and provisioning functions that keep the SDN-enabled network elements and links available for providing network services. Any disruption to the SDN Controller can result in mission-critical network outages. A DoS attack targeting the SDN Controller can result in excessive CPU and memory utilization. The SDN Controller must be configured to rate-limit control-plane traffic destined to itself to mitigate the risk of a DoS attack and ensure network stability.

Check Content

Review the SDN controller configuration to determine if it is configured to rate-limit control-plane messages. If the SDN controller is not configured to rate-limit control-plane messages, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the SDN controller to rate-limit control-plane messages.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-95487r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-80777

Group Title: SRG-NET-000362

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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