| Finding ID |
Severity |
Title |
Description |
|
V-271969
|
High |
Cisco ACI SSH sessions must be terminated after five minutes of inactivity. |
Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. Quickly terminating an idle session will also free up resources committed by the managed... |
|
V-271966
|
High |
The Cisco ACI must use FIPS 140-2/140-3 approved algorithms for authentication to a cryptographic module. |
Unapproved mechanisms used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not validated and therefore, cannot be relied on to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DOD data may be compromised.
Cisco ACIs using encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules.
FIPS 140-2/140-3 is the current standard... |
|
V-271931
|
High |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to send log data to a central log server for log retention and forwarding alerts to the administrators and the information system security officer (ISSO). |
The aggregation of log data kept on a syslog server can be used to detect attacks and trigger an alert to the appropriate security personnel. The stored log data can be used to detect weaknesses in security that enable the network IA team to find and address these weaknesses before... |
|
V-271927
|
High |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to assign appropriate user roles or access levels to authenticated users. |
Successful identification and authentication must not automatically give an entity full access to a Cisco ACI or security domain. The lack of authorization-based access control could result in the immediate compromise of, and unauthorized access to, sensitive information. All DOD systems must be properly configured to incorporate access control methods... |
|
V-271926
|
High |
The Cisco ACI must be running an operating system release that is currently supported by the vendor. |
Cisco ACIs running an unsupported operating system lack current security fixes required to mitigate the risks associated with recent vulnerabilities. |
|
V-271924
|
High |
The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) must be configured to use at least two authentication servers for the purpose of authenticating users prior to granting administrative access. |
Centralized management of authentication settings increases the security of remote and nonlocal access methods. This control is particularly important protection against the insider threat. With robust centralized management, audit records for administrator account access to the organization's Cisco ACIs can be more readily analyzed for trends and anomalies. The alternative... |
|
V-271920
|
High |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to prohibit the use of all unnecessary and/or nonsecure functions, ports, protocols, and/or services. |
To prevent unauthorized connection of devices, unauthorized transfer of information, or unauthorized tunneling (i.e., embedding of data types within data types), organizations must disable unused or unnecessary physical and logical ports/protocols on information systems.
By default, Cisco ACI only exposes two ports from the outside:
- HTTPS (TCP 443) for... |
|
V-271975
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must limit the number of concurrent sessions to one for each administrator account. |
Device management includes the ability to control the number of administrators and management sessions that manage a device. Limiting the number of allowed administrators and sessions per administrator based on account type, role, or access type is helpful in limiting risks related to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
This requirement addresses concurrent... |
|
V-271972
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to disable the auxiliary USB port. |
Disable the USB port in those environments where physical access to the devices is not strictly controlled, or in environments where this extra layer of protection is required.
Cisco Nexus 9000 switches running Cisco ACI code have the USB port enabled by default. When the USB port is enabled, switches... |
|
V-271971
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to synchronize system clocks within and between systems or system components. |
Time synchronization of system clocks is essential for the correct execution of many system services, including identification and authentication processes that involve certificates and time-of-day restrictions as part of access control. Denial of service or failure to deny expired credentials may result without properly synchronized clocks within and between systems... |
|
V-271960
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must enforce a minimum 15-character password length. |
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password.
The shorter the password, the lower the number... |
|
V-271958
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to allow user selection of long passwords and passphrases, including spaces and all printable characters, for password-based authentication. |
Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter passwords. Enforced composition rules provide marginal security benefits while decreasing usability. However, organizations may choose to establish certain rules for password generation (e.g., minimum character length... |
|
V-271944
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must generate log records for a locally developed list of auditable events. |
Auditing and logging are key components of any security architecture. Logging the actions of specific events provides a means to investigate an attack; to recognize resource utilization or capacity thresholds; or to identify an improperly configured Cisco ACI. If auditing is not comprehensive, it will not be useful for intrusion... |
|
V-271939
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must automatically audit account creation. |
Upon gaining access to a Cisco ACI, an attacker will often first attempt to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is to create a new account. Notification of account creation helps to mitigate this risk. Auditing account creation provides the necessary reconciliation that account... |
|
V-271936
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must implement replay-resistant authentication mechanisms for network access to privileged accounts. |
A replay attack may enable an unauthorized user to gain access to the application. authentication sessions between the authenticator and the application validating the user credentials must not be vulnerable to a replay attack.
An authentication process resists replay attacks if it is impractical to achieve a successful authentication by... |
|
V-271935
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must allocate audit record storage capacity in accordance with organization-defined audit record storage requirements. |
To ensure Cisco ACIs have a sufficient storage capacity in which to write the audit logs, they need to be able to allocate audit record storage capacity. The task of allocating audit record storage capacity is usually performed during initial device setup if it is modifiable.
The value for the... |
|
V-271933
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must audit the enforcement actions used to restrict access associated with changes to the device. |
Without auditing the enforcement of access restrictions against changes to the device configuration, it will be difficult to identify attempted attacks, and an audit trail will not be available for forensic investigation for after-the-fact actions.
Enforcement actions are the methods or mechanisms used to prevent unauthorized changes to configuration settings.... |
|
V-271932
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to alert organization-defined personnel or roles upon detection of unauthorized access, modification, or deletion of audit information. |
Audit information includes all information needed to successfully audit system activity, such as audit records, audit log settings, audit reports, and personally identifiable information. Audit logging tools are those programs and devices used to conduct system audit and logging activities. Protection of audit information focuses on technical protection and limits... |
|
V-271929
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured with only one local account to be used as the account of last resort in the event the authentication server is unavailable. |
Authentication for administrative (privileged level) access to the device is required at all times. An account can be created on the device's local database for use when the authentication server is down or connectivity between the device and the authentication server is not operable. This account is referred to as... |
|
V-271923
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must use DOD-approved Network Time Protocol (NTP) sources that use authentication that is cryptographically based. |
If NTP is not authenticated, an attacker can introduce a rogue NTP server. This rogue server can then be used to send incorrect time information to Cisco ACIs, which will make log timestamps inaccurate and affect scheduled actions. NTP authentication is used to prevent this tampering by authenticating the time... |
|
V-271922
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must obtain its public key certificates from an appropriate certificate policy through an approved service provider. |
After the Cisco ACI is initialized, it uses the self-signed certificate as the SSL certificate for HTTPS. This self-signed certificate is neither appropriate nor approved for use in DOD. |
|
V-271921
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must conduct backups of the configuration weekly or at an organization-defined frequency and store on a separate device. |
Information system backup is a critical step in maintaining data assurance and availability. Information system and security-related documentation contains information pertaining to system configuration and security settings. If this information were not backed up, and a system failure were to occur, the security settings would be difficult to reconfigure quickly... |
|
V-271919
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts, after which time it must block any login attempt for 15 minutes. |
By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced.
For Cisco ACI, when a user is in a locked-out state, the lockout is enforced in all nodes that are part of the fabric, including controllers... |
|
V-271918
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must display the Standard Mandatory DOD Notice and Consent Banner before granting access to the device. |
Display of the DOD-approved use notification before granting access to the Cisco ACI ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance.
System use notifications are required only for access via logon interfaces with human users. |
|
V-271917
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must be configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC). |
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... |
|
V-271916
|
Medium |
The Cisco ACI must record time stamps for audit records that can be mapped to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). |
If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis.
Time stamps generated by the application include date and time. Time is commonly expressed in UTC or local time with an offset from UTC. |