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CISC-RT-000040 – The Cisco switch must be configured to use encryption for routing protocol authentication – bgp

Details

A rogue switch could send a fictitious routing update to convince a site’s perimeter switch to send traffic to an incorrect or even a rogue destination. This diverted traffic could be analyzed to learn confidential information about the site’s network or used to disrupt the network’s ability to communicate with other networks. This is known as a ‘traffic attraction attack’ and is prevented by configuring neighbor switch authentication for routing updates. However, using clear-text authentication provides little benefit since an attacker can intercept traffic and view the authentication key. This would allow the attacker to use the authentication key in an attack.

This requirement applies to all IPv4 and IPv6 protocols that are used to exchange routing or packet forwarding information; this includes all Interior Gateway Protocols (such as OSPF, EIGRP, and IS-IS) and Exterior Gateway Protocols (such as BGP), MPLS-related protocols (such as LDP), and multicast-related protocols.

Solution

Configure all routing protocol authentications to encrypt the authentication key.

BGP Example

SW1(config)#switch bgp nn
SW1(config-switch)#neighbor x.x.x.x password xxxxxx

EIGRP Example

SW1(config)# router eigrp 1
SW1(config-router)# authentication mode md5
SW1(config-router)# end

or

Authentication for the EIGRP neighbor

SW1(config)# int e2/21
SW1(config-if)# ip authentication mode eigrp 1 md5
SW1(config-if)# end

Note: Interface authentication overrides process authentication.

IS-IS Example

SW1(config)# int e2/20
SW1(config-if)# isis authentication-type md5 level-1

OSPF Example

SW1(config)# int e2/2
SW1(config-if)# ip ospf authentication message-digest
SW1(config-if)# ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 xxxxxxxxxxx

RIP Example

SW1(config)# int e2/8
SW1(config-if)# ip rip authentication mode md5

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Identification and Authentication.This control applies to the following type of system Cisco.

References

Source

Updated on July 16, 2022
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