The Cisco router must be configured to use encryption for routing protocol authentication.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-216738	CISC-RT-000040	SV-216738r531087_rule		Medium

Description

A rogue router could send a fictitious routing update to convince a site's perimeter router 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 router 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.

STIG	Date
Cisco IOS XR Router RTR Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-23

Details

Check Text ( C-17970r288606_chk )

Review the router configuration. For every routing protocol that affects the routing or forwarding tables, verify that neighbor router authentication is encrypting the authentication key as shown in the examples below. Step 1: Verify that the routing protocols are configured to use a key chain for authentication as shown in the examples below. BGP Example router bgp nn address-family ipv4 unicast ! neighbor x.1.23.2 remote-as nn keychain BGP_KEY_CHAIN address-family ipv4 unicaast EIGRP Example router eigrp 1 address-family ipv4 interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2 authentication keychain EIGRP_KEY_CHAIN IS-IS Example router isis 1 net 49.0001.0001.0001.0002.00 lsp-password keychain ISIS_KEY_CHAIN interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2 hello-password keychain ISIS_KEY_CHAIN OSPF Example router ospf 1 area 0 authentication message-digest keychain OSPF_KEY_CHAIN RIP Example router rip interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2 authentication keychain RIP_KEY_CHAIN mode md5 Step 2: Verify that the keys use an encryption algorithm as shown in the example below. key chain OSPF_KEY_CHAIN key 1 accept-lifetime 01:00:00 january 01 2019 01:00:00 april 01 2019 key-string password 104300150004 send-lifetime 01:00:00 january 01 2019 01:00:00 april 01 2019 cryptographic-algorithm HMAC-MD5 ! key 2 accept-lifetime 01:00:00 april 01 2019 01:00:00 july 01 2019 key-string password 030654090416 send-lifetime 01:00:00 april 01 2019 01:00:00 july 01 2019 cryptographic-algorithm HMAC-MD5 If the routing protocol is not encrypting the authentication key, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-17968r288607_fix)

Configure the key chains used by the routing protocols to have the keys encrypted as shown in the example below. RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config)#key chain OSPF_KEY_CHAIN RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN)#key 1 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-1)#accept-lifetime 01:00:00 jan 01 2019 01:00:00 april 01 2019 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-1)#key-string password xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-1)#send-lifetime 01:00:00 jan 01 2019 01:00:00 april 01 2019 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-1)#cryptographic-algorithm hmac-md5 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-1)#key 2 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-2)#accept-lifetime 01:00:00 april 01 2019 01:00:00 july 01 2019 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-2)#key-string password xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-2)#send-lifetime 01:00:00 april 01 2019 01:00:00 july 01 2019 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-2)#cryptographic-algorithm hmac-md5 RP/0/0/CPU0:R2(config-OSPF_KEY_CHAIN-2)#end