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ConfigProof

All controls

ASA-MGT-011HighCisco ASA

Weak or default stored password

At a glance

Base severity

High

Area

Administrators and Access

Platform

Cisco ASA

Evidence level

Fact1.00

Benchmark reference

Reads the export, not the device

ConfigProof reads a configuration export. This control is evaluated against the objects in that file, and it reports what the file says. It does not connect to the device and sees no traffic, so a finding here describes the configuration, not what the firewall is doing right now.

Why it matters

The MD5-era ASA hash is trivial to reverse, and the empty or default enable password gives anyone who reaches the CLI full control.

How to fix it

Web interface

The steps below are written for the web interface. A finding raised on your own export carries the same steps with your object names filled in.

  1. In ASDM: Configuration > Device Setup > Device Name/Password, set a strong enable password; Device Management > Users/AAA > User Accounts, re-enter each password so it is stored with PBKDF2. Apply and save.
  2. On the CLI: enable password <strong> level 15, and username <name> password <strong> privilege <level> (9.5 and later store PBKDF2), then write memory.

Command line

Cisco ASA CLI

configure terminalenable password <password> level 15username <account> password <password> privilege 15endwrite memory

An example. Values in angle brackets are yours to supply; a finding on your own export fills in the names it read. Typed in configuration mode; write memory saves it, with no separate commit. Read every line first.

Read it back

show running-config enableshow running-config username
Values to fill in2
<password>
A strong password
<account>
The local account
Before you type it2
  • Written from the ASA 9.x command reference and not run on a device: read each line before you paste it.
  • In multiple context mode, type it in the context it applies to (changeto context <name>).

How to confirm the fix

  • Run show running-config enable and show running-config username and confirm pbkdf2.

Limits

  • No limitation is recorded for this control beyond the one that applies to all of them: it reads a configuration export.

Compliance references

No benchmark recommendation is mapped to this control in this version.

More in Administrators and Access

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