Riverbed NetProfiler Security Technical Implementation Guide

By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. in NetProfiler, the default "Number of log-in attempts before account is locked" is 3, and the default "Number of minutes to keep account locked" is 30.

Display of the DOD-approved use notification before granting access to the network device ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance. System use notifications are required only for access via logon interfaces with human users.

The administrator must acknowledge the banner prior to the device allowing the administrator access to the network device. This provides assurance that the administrator has seen the message and accepted the conditions for access. If the administrator does not acknowledge the consent banner, DOD will not be in compliance with system use notifications required by law. To establish acceptance of the network administration policy, a click-through banner at management session logon is required. The device must prevent further activity until the administrator executes a positive action to manifest agreement. In the case of CLI access using a terminal client, entering the username and password when the banner is presented is considered an explicit action of acknowledgement. Entering the username, viewing the banner, and then entering the password is also acceptable.

To prevent unauthorized connection of devices, unauthorized transfer of information, or unauthorized tunneling (i.e., embedding of data types within data types), organizations must disable unused or unnecessary physical and logical ports/protocols on information systems. To support the requirements and principles of least functionality, the network device must support the organizational requirements providing only essential capabilities and limiting the use of ports, protocols, and/or services to only those required, authorized, and approved. Some network devices have capabilities enabled by default; if these capabilities are not necessary, they must be disabled. If a particular capability is used, it must be documented and approved. NOTE: Configuration of the network firewall is out of scope for this STIG. However, the network firewall must be configured to ONLY allow the following ports to the Riverbed NetProfiler. - TCP/22 – (SSH) Used for secure shell access to SteelCentral software components and for the appliance to obtain information from servers via scripts. - TCP/443 – Used to secure web-based management interfaces. - TCP/8443 – Used for exchange of encryption certificates between SteelCentral products. - TCP/41017 – Used for encrypted communication between NetProfiler and Flow Gateway, NetShark, and AppResponse appliances. - TCP/5432 – (ODBC) Enable this port if plans are to enable other applications' access to the NetProfiler internal database via ODBC. - TCP/42999 – Enable traffic on this port if the intent is to use the NetProfiler user identification feature with a Microsoft Active Directory domain controller. - UDP/123 – (NTP) Used for synchronization of time between a Flow Gateway and NetProfiler. - UDP/161 – (SNMP) Used by the NetProfiler or Flow Gateway to obtain interface information from switches, routers, firewalls, SteelHeads, and any sFlow or Netflow sources. Also, management systems use this port to read the SteelCentral product Management Information Base (MIB). - Vulnerability scanner ports – Use of the NetProfiler vulnerability scan feature requires allowing traffic on the port the SteelCentral product uses to access the vulnerability scanner server. Obtain the vulnerability scanner server addresses and port numbers from the administrator of those systems. The default ports are: - Nessus: 1241 - nCircle: 443 - Rapid7: 3780 - Qualys: Requires external https access to qualysapi.qualys.com (Note: This is separate from qualysguard.qualys.com.) - Foundstone: 3800

Authentication for administrative (privileged-level) access to the device is required at all times. An account can be created on the device's local database for use when the authentication server is down or connectivity between the device and the authentication server is not operable. This account is referred to as the account of last resort because it is intended to be used as a last resort and when immediate administrative access is absolutely necessary. The account of last resort logon credentials must be stored in a sealed envelope and kept in a safe. The safe must be periodically audited to verify the envelope remains sealed. The signature of the auditor and the date of the audit should be added to the envelope as a record. Administrators should secure the credentials and disable the root account (if possible) when not needed for system administration functions.

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000164-NDM-000252, SRG-APP-000170-NDM-000329

Use of complex passwords helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password is, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using public key infrastructure (PKI) is not available and for the account of last resort and root account. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000166-NDM-000254, SRG-APP-000167-NDM-000255

Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using public key infrastructure (PKI) is not available and for the account of last resort and root account.

The loss of connectivity to a particular authoritative time source will result in the loss of time synchronization (free-run mode) and increasingly inaccurate time stamps on audit events and other functions. Multiple time sources provide redundancy by including a secondary source. Time synchronization is usually a hierarchy; clients synchronize time to a local source while that source synchronizes its time to a more accurate source. The network device must use an authoritative time server and/or be configured to use redundant authoritative time sources. This requirement is related to the comparison done in CCI-001891. DOD-approved solutions consist of a combination of a primary and secondary time source using a combination or multiple instances of the following: a time server designated for the appropriate DOD network (NIPRNet/SIPRNet); United States Naval Observatory (USNO) time servers; and/or the Global Positioning System (GPS). The secondary time source must be located in a different geographic region than the primary time source.

If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis. Time stamps generated by the application include date and time. Time is commonly expressed in UTC, a modern continuation of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or local time with an offset from UTC.

Without sufficient granularity of time stamps, it is not possible to adequately determine the chronological order of records. Time stamps generated by the application include date and time. Granularity of time measurements refers to the degree of synchronization between information system clocks and reference clocks.

Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. Bidirectional authentication provides stronger safeguards to validate the identity of other devices for connections that are of greater risk. A local connection is any connection with a device communicating without the use of a network. A network connection is any connection with a device that communicates through a network (e.g., local area or wide area network, internet). A remote connection is any connection with a device communicating through an external network (e.g., the internet). Because of the challenges of applying this requirement on a large scale, organizations are encouraged to apply the requirement only to those limited number (and type) of devices that truly need to support this capability.

If NTP is not authenticated, an attacker can introduce a rogue NTP server. This rogue server can then be used to send incorrect time information to network devices, which will make log timestamps inaccurate and affect scheduled actions. NTP authentication is used to prevent this tampering by authenticating the time source.

DOS is a condition when a resource is not available for legitimate users. When this occurs, the organization either cannot accomplish its mission or must operate at degraded capacity. This requirement addresses the configuration of network devices to mitigate the impact of DOS attacks that have occurred or are ongoing on device availability. For each network device, known and potential DOS attacks must be identified and solutions for each type implemented. A variety of technologies exist to limit or, in some cases, eliminate the effects of DOS attacks (e.g., limiting processes or restricting the number of sessions the device opens at one time). Employing increased capacity and bandwidth, combined with service redundancy, may reduce the susceptibility to some DOS attacks. The security safeguards cannot be defined at the DOD level because they vary according to the capabilities of the individual network devices and the security controls applied on the adjacent networks (for example, firewalls performing packet filtering to block DOS attacks).

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration. Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

For user certificates, each organization obtains certificates from an approved, shared service provider, as required by OMB policy. For federal agencies operating a legacy public key infrastructure cross-certified with the Federal Bridge Certification Authority at medium assurance or higher, this certification authority will suffice.

A shared/group account credential is a shared form of authentication that allows multiple individuals to access the network device using a single account. If shared/group account credentials are not terminated when individuals leave the group, the user that left the group can still gain access even though they are no longer authorized. There may also be instances when specific user actions need to be performed on the network device without unique administrator identification or authentication. Examples of credentials include passwords and group membership certificates. The “mazu” account is the local Linux OS account created and used by the NetProfiler and Flow Gateway application for ownership of application, configuration, and data files stored on the appliance. Operations such as changing appliance settings and running reports on a cluster, as well as using backup/restore functionality rely on the existence of the “mazu” user. The account is required for proper operation of the solution. However, the ability to login to this account can be disabled on the Security Compliance page, as well as firewall rules can be used to restrict the remote access.