IT Baseline Protection Manual - The Information Warfare Site

Safeguard Catalogue - Hardware & Software Remarks
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S 4.80 Secure access mechanisms for remote
administration
Initiation responsibility: Head of IT Section, IT Security Management
Implementation responsibility: Administrators
Some active network components can be administered or monitored remotely
via network access. This access is performed by means of connectionless or
connection-oriented protocols. Such protocols include:
- Protocols intended exclusively for the transmission of data comprising, for
example, new firmware versions or configuration files such as FTP, TFTP
(in general, use of the latter is not recommended) or RCP (also refer to S
6.52 Regular backup of configuration data of active network components)
- Protocols for interactive communications, e.g. Telnet
- Protocols for network management, e.g. SNMP or CMIP
For all types of access, measures must be taken to ensure that no unauthorised
access takes place.
For this purpose, the default passwords and community names of the network
components must be replaced with secure passwords and community names
(refer to S 4.82 Secure configuration of active network components). In the
case of many active network components, the coupling of community names
and passwords influences the FTP, Telnet, SNMP and CMIP protocols. Some
components also allow restriction of access on the basis of MAC or IP
addresses. This option should be used wherever possible, in order to permit
access exclusively from dedicated management stations.
Data transmission protocols (TFTP, FTP, RCP) should only be activated from
the network components themselves. This applies in particular to nonauthenticating
protocols such as TFTP. For interactive communication
protocols (Telnet), the auto-logout option of the network components should
be activated.
In the case of most protocols, it must be noted that passwords and community
names are transmitted in plain text, i.e. they can be intercepted in principle
(refer to S 5.61 Suitable physical segmentation and S 5.62 Suitable logical
segmentation).
Example: The "public" and "private" default community names in SNMP
should be replaced with other names.
Additional controls:
- Have all default passwords and community names been replaced with
secure, user-defined passwords and names?
- Can data transmission only be initiated from the network components?
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IT-Baseline Protection Manual: Oktober 2000