Details

Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to enable a new or disabled account. Notification of account enabling is one method for mitigating this risk.

A comprehensive account management process will ensure an audit trail that documents the creation of application user accounts and notifies administrators and Information System Security Officers (ISSOs). Such a process greatly reduces the risk that accounts will be surreptitiously created and provides logging that can be used for forensic purposes.

Solution

Configure the switch to log account enabling using the following commands:

SW4(config)#archive
SW4(config-archive)#log config
SW4(config-archive-log-cfg)#logging enable
SW4(config-archive-log-cfg)#end

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Cisco_IOS_Switch_Y21M07_STIG.zip

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

References

• 800-53|AC-2(4)
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-002130
• Rule-ID|SV-220597r521267_rule
• STIG-ID|CISC-ND-000880
• STIG-Legacy|SV-110423
• STIG-Legacy|V-101319
• Vuln-ID|V-220597

Source

• Tenable.com/audits