The Cisco switch must be configured to encrypt SNMP messages using a FIPS 140-2 approved algorithm.

Without the strong encryption that is provided by the SNMP Version 3 User-based Security Model (USM), an unauthorized user can gain access to network management information that can be used to create a network outage.

Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below:

snmp-server user NETOPS auth sha 5Er23@#as178 priv aes-128 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

snmp-server host 10.1.48.10 traps version 3 priv NETOPS

Encryption used by the SNMP users can be viewed via the show snmp user command as shown in the example below:

SW1# show snmp user ______________________________________________________________ SNMP USERS ______________________________________________________________

User Auth Priv(enforce) Groups acl_filter ____ ____ ___________ ______ __________ NETOPS sha aes-128 network-operator

If the Cisco switch is not configured to encrypt SNMP messages using a FIPS 140-2 approved algorithm, this is a finding.

Configure the Cisco switch to encrypt SNMP messages using a FIPS 140-2 approved algorithm as shown in the example below:

SW1(config)# snmp-server user NETOPS auth sha xxxxxxxxxxxxx priv aes-128 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SW1(config)# snmp-server host 10.1.48.10 traps version 3 priv NETOPS