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ConfigProof

All controls

ASA-SEC-034MediumCisco ASA

Failover interface without a standby address or monitoring

At a glance

Base severity

Medium

Area

High Availability

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

Without a standby address the standby unit cannot be managed or checked on that interface, and an unmonitored interface can fail without triggering failover.

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 Management > High Availability and Scalability > Failover > Interfaces, set the Standby IP Address and check Monitored. Apply and save.
  2. On the CLI: interface <name>, ip address <address> <mask> standby <standby>, and monitor-interface <nameif>, then write memory.

Command line

Cisco ASA CLI

configure terminalinterface <interface>ip address <address> <mask> standby <standby-address>exitmonitor-interface <nameif>endwrite 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 failover
Values to fill in5
<interface>
The physical or logical interface
<address>
The active unit's address
<mask>
Its netmask
<standby-address>
The standby unit's address on that interface
<nameif>
The interface name (nameif)
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 failover and confirm the interface is monitored with a standby address.

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.

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