Details

Network devices are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services provided by default may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations. Additionally, it is sometimes convenient to provide multiple services from a single component (e.g., email and web services); however, doing so increases risk over limiting the services provided by any one component.

To support the requirements and principles of least functionality, the network device must support the organizational requirements providing only essential capabilities and limiting the use of ports, protocols, and/or services to only those required, authorized, and approved. Some network devices have capabilities enabled by default; if these capabilities are not necessary, they must be disabled. If a particular capability is used, then it must be documented and approved.

Solution

Disable the following services if enabled as shown in the example below.

R2(config)#no boot network
R2(config)#no ip boot server
R2(config)#no ip bootp server
R2(config)#no ip dns server
R2(config)#no ip identd
R2(config)#no ip finger
R2(config)#no ip http server
R2(config)#no ip rcmd rcp-enable
R2(config)#no ip rcmd rsh-enable
R2(config)#no service config
R2(config)#no service finger
R2(config)#no service tcp-small-servers
R2(config)#no service udp-small-servers
R2(config)#no service pad
R2(config)#end

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Cisco_IOS-XE_Router_Y21M10_STIG.zip

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

References

• 800-53|CM-7b.
• CAT|I
• CCI|CCI-000382
• Rule-ID|SV-215823r531083_rule
• STIG-ID|CISC-ND-000470
• STIG-Legacy|SV-105377
• STIG-Legacy|V-96239
• Vuln-ID|V-215823

Source

• Tenable.com/audits