OSPF interface without message-digest authentication
At a glance
Base severity
Area
Platform
Evidence level
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
A device that joins an unauthenticated area can form an adjacency and inject or withdraw routes.
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.
- Configure area <area> authentication message-digest under router ospf, and ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 <key> on each interface in the area, with the same key on every router of the link.
Command line
Cisco IOS-XE CLI
configure terminalrouter ospf <process>area <area> authentication message-digestexitinterface <interface>ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 <ospf-key>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; copy running-config startup-config saves it, with no separate commit. Read every line first.
Read it back
show ip ospf interface <interface>show ip ospf neighbor
Values to fill in4
- <process>
- The OSPF process number
- <area>
- The OSPF area
- <interface>
- Each affected port
- <ospf-key>
- The key every router on the link shares
Before you type it2
- Written from the Cisco IOS-XE 17 and NX-OS 9 and 10 command references and not run on a device: read each line before you paste it.
- Set the same key on the neighbor in the same window: the session drops until both ends have it.
How to confirm the fix
- On the router (read only): show ip ospf interface, and confirm message digest authentication and every neighbor back in FULL.
Limits
- Passive interfaces and loopbacks form no adjacency and are not judged; an interface two network statements put in two areas, with no authentication of its own, is not judged.
Compliance references
CIS Cisco IOS 17.x Benchmark v2.0.0
Covers the whole recommendation
Where a control aligns with a recommendation of the CIS Cisco IOS 17.x Benchmark v2.0.0, that recommendation is cited as a reference. Only that version was checked. A reference is not a certification.
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