Rule version CISC-ND-001130 · STIG v3 · 2026-09-01
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 network connection is any connection with a device that communicates through a network (e.g., local area or wide area network, Internet). A remote connection is any connection with a device communicating through an external network (e.g., the Internet).
Because of the challenges of applying this requirement on a large scale, organizations are encouraged to only apply the requirement to those limited number (and type) of devices that truly need to support this capability.
Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it authenticates SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated HMAC as shown in the example below:
snmp-server group V3GROUP v3 auth read V3READ write V3WRITE snmp-server view V3READ iso included snmp-server view V3WRITE iso included snmp-server host x.x.x.x version 3 auth V3USER
Authentication used by the SNMP users can be viewed via the show snmp user command as shown in the example below:
R4#show snmp user
User name: V3USER Engine ID: 800000090300C2042B540000 storage-type: nonvolatile active Authentication Protocol: SHA Privacy Protocol: None Group-name: V3GROUP
If the Cisco switch is not configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated HMAC, this is a finding.
Configure the Cisco switch to authenticate SNMP messages as shown in the example below:
SW4(config)#snmp-server group V3GROUP v3 auth read V3READ write V3WRITE SW4(config)#snmp-server user V3USER V3GROUP v3 auth sha xxxxxxx SW4(config)#snmp-server view V3READ iso included SW4(config)#snmp-server view V3WRITE iso included SW4(config)#snmp-server host x.x.x.x version 3 auth V3USER