Cisco ISE NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide
Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark
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For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must implement replay-resistant authentication mechanisms for network access to privileged accounts.
A replay attack may enable an unauthorized user to gain access to the application. Authentication sessions between the authenticator and the application validating the user credentials must not be ...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must be configured to authenticate SNMP messages using a FIPS-validated Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC).
Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. Bidirectional authentication provides stronger safeguards to validate the...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must authenticate Network Time Protocol (NTP) sources using authentication that is cryptographically based.
If NTP is not authenticated, an attacker can introduce a rogue NTP server. This rogue server can then be used to send incorrect time information to network devices, which will make log timestamps i...Rule Medium Severity -
For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to d...Rule Medium Severity -
For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one uppercase character be used.
Use of a complex passwords helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisti...Rule Medium Severity -
For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used.
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resistin...Rule Medium Severity -
For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one digit be used.
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resistin...Rule Medium Severity -
For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resistin...Rule Medium Severity -
For accounts using password authentication, the Cisco ISE must use FIPS-validated SHA-2 or later protocol to protect the integrity of the password authentication process.
Passwords need to be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily c...Rule High Severity -
The Cisco ISE must prohibit the use of cached authenticators after an organization-defined time period.
Some authentication implementations can be configured to use cached authenticators. If cached authentication information is out-of-date, the validity of the authentication information may be quest...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must use FIPS-validated SHA-2 (or greater) to protect the integrity of hash message authentication code (HMAC), Key Derivation Functions (KDFs), Random Bit Generation, and hash-only applications.
Without cryptographic integrity protections, information can be altered by unauthorized users without detection. Nonlocal maintenance and diagnostic activities are activities conducted by individu...Rule High Severity -
The Cisco ISE must use FIPS-validated Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) to protect the integrity of nonlocal maintenance and diagnostic communications.
Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoD data may be ...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must verify the checksum value of any software download, including install files (ISO or OVA), patch files, and upgrade bundles.
Without cryptographic integrity protections, information can be altered by unauthorized users without detection. Nonlocal maintenance and diagnostic activities are those activities conducted by in...Rule High Severity -
The Cisco ISE must terminate all network connections associated with a device management session at the end of the session, or the session must be terminated after five minutes of inactivity except to fulfill documented and validated mission requirements.
Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port th...Rule High Severity -
The Cisco ISE must generate unique session identifiers using a FIPS 140-2 approved Random Number Generator (RNG) using DRGB.
Sequentially generated session IDs can be easily guessed by an attacker. Employing the concept of randomness in the generation of unique session identifiers helps to protect against brute-force att...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must only allow authorized administrators to view or change the device configuration, system files, and other files stored.
This requirement is intended to address the confidentiality and integrity of system information at rest (e.g., network device rule sets) when it is located on a storage device within the network de...Rule High Severity -
The Cisco ISE must configure the control plane to protect against or limit the effects of common types of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on the device itself by configuring applicable system options and internet-options.
DoS is a condition when a resource is not available for legitimate users. When this occurs, the organization either cannot accomplish its mission or must operate at degraded capacity. This require...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must initiate session auditing upon startup.
If auditing is enabled late in the startup process, the actions of some start-up processes may not be audited. Some audit systems also maintain state information only available if auditing is enabl...Rule Medium Severity -
The Cisco ISE must generate audit records containing the full-text recording of privileged commands.
Reconstruction of harmful events or forensic analysis is not possible if audit records do not contain enough information. Organizations consider limiting the additional audit information to only ...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000340-NDM-000288
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The Cisco ISE must prevent non-privileged users from executing privileged functions to include disabling, circumventing, or altering implemented security safeguards/countermeasures.
Preventing non-privileged users from executing privileged functions mitigates the risk that unauthorized individuals or processes may gain unnecessary access to information or privileges. Privile...Rule High Severity -
SRG-APP-000343-NDM-000289
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SRG-APP-000065-NDM-000214
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The Cisco ISE must be configured to enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts, after which time it must lock out the user account from accessing the device for 15 minutes.
By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. If the administrator enters an inc...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000068-NDM-000215
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For the local account of last resort, the Cisco ISE must display the Standard Mandatory DoD Notice and Consent Banner before granting access to the device.
Display of the DoD-approved use notification before granting access to the network device ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executi...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000080-NDM-000220
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SRG-APP-000374-NDM-000299
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The Cisco ISE must record time stamps for audit records that can be mapped to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis. Time stamps generated by the application include date and time. Tim...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000335
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SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000336
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The Cisco ISE must be configured to use an external authentication server to authenticate administrators prior to granting administrative access.
Centralized management of authentication settings increases the security of remote and nonlocal access methods. This control is particularly important protection against the insider threat. With ro...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000351
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SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000341
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The Cisco ISE must conduct configuration and operational backups when changes are made or must schedule backups weekly, at a minimum.
If this information is not backed up and a system failure was to occur, the security settings would be difficult to reconfigure quickly and accurately, thus increasing adverse impact of the outage....Rule Low Severity -
SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000344
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The Cisco ISE must use DoD-approved PKI rather than proprietary or self-signed device certificates.
To mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information by entities that have been issued certificates by DoD-approved PKIs. The Cisco ISE generates a key-pair and a CSR. The CSR is s...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000142-NDM-000245
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The Cisco ISE must be configured to prohibit the use of all unnecessary and/or nonsecure functions, ports, protocols, and/or services.
Changes to any software components of the network device can have significant effects on the overall security of the network. Therefore, only qualified and authorized individuals should be allowed ...Rule High Severity -
SRG-APP-000142-NDM-000245
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The Cisco ISE must be configured to disable Wireless Setup for production systems.
ISE Wireless Setup is beta software so is not authorized for use in DoD. Wireless Setup is disabled by default after fresh installation of Cisco ISE. If you upgrade ISE from a previous version, th...Rule High Severity -
SRG-APP-000156-NDM-000250
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SRG-APP-000400-NDM-000313
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SRG-APP-000179-NDM-000265
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SRG-APP-000411-NDM-000330
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SRG-APP-000411-NDM-000330
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SRG-APP-000412-NDM-000331
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The Cisco ISE must be configured to implement cryptographic mechanisms using a FIPS 140-2 validated algorithm to protect the confidentiality of remote maintenance sessions.
This requires the use of secure protocols instead of their unsecured counterparts, such as SSH instead of telnet, SCP instead of FTP, and HTTPS instead of HTTP. If unsecured protocols (lacking cryp...Rule High Severity -
SRG-APP-000190-NDM-000267
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SRG-APP-000224-NDM-000270
Group
Node 2
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