Ivanti Connect Secure NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide

This configuration protects to protect the confidentiality of Web UI session and guards against DoS attacks. 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 cryptographic mechanisms) are used for sessions, the contents of those sessions will be susceptible to eavesdropping, potentially putting sensitive data (including administrator passwords) at risk of compromise and potentially allowing hijacking of maintenance sessions. When JITC and FIPS mode is enabled, it enables DoS attacks such as flooding and replay attack audit logs inherently. JITC and FIPS mode are required for ICS use in DOD.

The aggregation of log data kept on a syslog server can be used to detect attacks and trigger an alert to the appropriate security personnel. The stored log data can used to detect weaknesses in security that enable the network IA team to find and address these weaknesses before breaches can occur. Reviewing these logs, whether before or after a security breach, are important in showing whether someone is an internal employee or an outside threat. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000350, SRG-APP-000360-NDM-000295, SRG-APP-000515-NDM-000325

Preventing nonprivileged users from executing privileged functions mitigates the risk that unauthorized individuals or processes may gain unnecessary access to information or privileges. Privileged functions include, for example, establishing accounts, performing system integrity checks, or administering cryptographic key management activities. Nonprivileged users are individuals that do not possess appropriate authorizations. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000340-NDM-000288, SRG-APP-000380-NDM-000304, SRG-APP-000378-NDM-000302, SRG-APP-000133-NDM-000244, SRG-APP-000123-NDM-000240, SRG-APP-000121-NDM-000238, SRG-APP-000231-NDM-000271, SRG-APP-000408-NDM-000314, SRG-APP-000329-NDM-000287, SRG-APP-000153-NDM-000249, SRG-APP-000119-NDM-000236, SRG-APP-000120-NDM-000237, SRG-APP-000033-NDM-000212, SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000335, SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000336, SRG-APP-000177-NDM-000263, SRG-APP-000080-NDM-000220

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 that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle session will also free up resources committed by the managed network element. Terminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, de-allocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level, or de-allocating networking assignments at the application level if multiple application sessions are using a single, operating system-level network connection. This does not mean that the device terminates all sessions or network access; it only ends the inactive session and releases the resources associated with that session. Upon the termination of a session, the Ivanti ICS inherently ends the inactive session and releases the resources associated with that session.

MFA is when two or more factors are used to confirm the identity of an individual who is requesting access to digital information resources. Valid factors include something the individual knows (e.g., username and password), something the individual has (e.g., a smartcard or token), or something the individual is (e.g., a fingerprint or biometric). Legacy information system environments only use a single factor for authentication, typically a username and password combination. Although two pieces of data are used in a username and password combination, this is still considered single factor because an attacker can obtain access simply by learning what the user knows. Common attacks against single-factor authentication are attacks on user passwords. These attacks include brute force password guessing, password spraying, and password credential stuffing. MFA, along with strong user account hygiene, helps mitigate against the threat of having account passwords discovered by an attacker. Even in the event of a password compromise, with MFA implemented and required for interactive login, the attacker still needs to acquire something the user has or replicate a piece of user's biometric digital presence. Private industry recognizes and uses a wide variety of MFA solutions. However, DOD public key infrastructure (PKI) is the only prescribed method approved for DOD organizations to implement MFA. For authentication purposes, centralized DOD certificate authorities (CA) issue PKI certificate key pairs (public and private) to individuals using the prescribed x.509 format. The private certificates that have been generated by the issuing CA are downloaded and saved to smartcards which, within DOD, are referred to as common access cards (CAC) or personal identity verification (PIV) cards. This happens at designated DOD badge facilities. The CA maintains a record of the corresponding public keys for use with PKI-enabled environments. Privileged user smartcards, or "alternate tokens", function in the same manner, so this requirement applies to all interactive user sessions (authorized and privileged users). Note: This requirement is used in conjunction with the use of a centralized authentication server (e.g., AAA, RADIUS, LDAP), a separate but equally important requirement. The MFA configuration of this requirement provides identification and the first phase of authentication (the challenge and validated response, thereby confirming the PKI certificate that was presented by the user). The centralized authentication server will provide the second phase of authentication (the digital presence of the PKI ID as a valid user in the requested security domain) and authorization. The centralized authentication server will map validated PKI identities to valid user accounts and determine access levels for authenticated users based on security group membership and role. In cases where the centralized authentication server is not utilized by the network device for user authorization, the network device must map the authenticated identity to the user account for PKI-based authentication.

Network devices running an unsupported operating system lack current security fixes required to mitigate the risks associated with recent vulnerabilities.

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 compromised. This is applicable to the account of last resort which uses a password. Secure password while in transit for admin access.

Once issued by a DOD certificate authority (CA), public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates are typically valid for three years or shorter within the DOD. However, there are many reasons a certificate may become invalid before the prescribed expiration date. For example, an employee may leave or be terminated and still possess the smartcard on which the PKI certificates were stored. Another example is that a smartcard containing PKI certificates may become lost or stolen. A more serious issue could be that the CA or server which issued the PKI certificates has become compromised, thereby jeopardizing every certificate keypair that was issued by the CA. These examples of revocation use cases and many more can be researched further using internet cybersecurity resources. PKI user certificates presented as part of the identification and authentication criteria (e.g., DOD PKI as multifactor authentication [MFA]) must be checked for validity by network devices. For example, valid PKI certificates are digitally signed by a trusted DOD CA. Additionally, valid PKI certificates are not expired, and valid certificates have not been revoked by a DOD CA. Network devices can verify the validity of PKI certificates by checking with an authoritative CA. One method of checking the status of PKI certificates is to query databases referred to as certificate revocation lists (CRL). These are lists which are published, updated, and maintained by authoritative DOD CAs. For example, once certificates are expired or revoked, issuing CAs place the certificates on a certificate revocation list (CRL). Organizations can download these lists periodically (i.e. daily or weekly) and store them locally on the devices themselves or even onto another nearby local enclave resource. Storing them locally ensures revocation status can be checked even if internet connectivity is severed at the enclave's point of presence (PoP). However, CRLs can be rather large in storage size and further, the use of CRLs can be rather taxing on some computing resources. Another method of validating certificate status is to use the online certificate status protocol (OCSP). Using OCSP, a requestor (i.e. the network device which the user is trying to authenticate to) sends a request to an authoritative CA challenging the validity of a certificate that has been presented for identification and authentication. The CA receives the request and sends a digitally signed response indicating the status of the user's certificate as valid, revoked, or unknown. Network devices should only allow access for responses that indicate the certificates presented by the user were considered valid by an approved DOD CA. OCSP is the preferred method because it is fast, provides the most current status, and is lightweight.