{ "name": "stig_forescout_counteract_ndm", "date": "2017-09-19", "description": "This Security Technical Implementation Guide is published as a tool to improve the security of Department of Defense (DoD) information systems. The requirements are derived from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 and related documents. Comments or proposed revisions to this document should be sent via email to the following address: disa.stig_spt@mail.mil.", "title": "ForeScout CounterACT NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide", "version": "1", "item_syntax": "^\\w-\\d+$", "section_separator": null, "items": [ { "id": "V-76193", "title": "For the local account, CounterACT must enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during a 15-minute time period.", "description": "By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced.\n\nNonlocal account are configured on the authentication server.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76195", "title": "CounterACT must display the Standard Mandatory DoD Notice and Consent Banner before granting access to the device.", "description": "Display of the DoD-approved use notification before granting access to CounterACT ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance.\n\nSystem use notifications are required only for access via logon interfaces with human users.", "severity": "low" }, { "id": "V-76197", "title": "CounterACT must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.", "description": "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.\n\nPassword 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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76199", "title": "CounterACT must enforce a 60-day maximum password lifetime restriction.", "description": "Any password, no matter how complex, can eventually be cracked. Therefore, passwords need to be changed at specific intervals.\n\nOne method of minimizing this risk is to use complex passwords and periodically change them. If the network device does not limit the lifetime of passwords and force users to change their passwords, there is the risk that the passwords could be compromised.\n\nThis requirement does not include root account or the account of last resort which are meant for access to the network device in case of failure.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76201", "title": "CounterACT must prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations.", "description": "Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.\n\nTo meet password policy requirements, passwords need to be changed at specific policy-based intervals.\n\nIf the network device allows the user to consecutively reuse their password when that password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the end result is a password that is not changed as per policy requirements.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76203", "title": "CounterACT must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.", "description": "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.\n\nThe 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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76205", "title": "CounterACT must enforce access restrictions associated with changes to the system components.", "description": "Changes to the hardware or software components of the network device can have significant effects on the overall security of the network. Therefore, only qualified and authorized individuals should be allowed administrative access to the network device for implementing any changes or upgrades. This requirement applies to updates of the application files, configuration, ACLs, and policy filters.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76207", "title": "CounterACT must generate audit log events for a locally developed list of auditable events.", "description": "Auditing and logging are key components of any security architecture. Logging the actions of specific events provides a means to investigate an attack, recognize resource utilization or capacity thresholds, or identify an improperly configured network device. If auditing is not comprehensive, it will not be useful for intrusion monitoring, security investigations, and forensic analysis.", "severity": "low" }, { "id": "V-76209", "title": "CounterACT must support organizational requirements to conduct backups of system-level information contained in the information system when changes occur or weekly, whichever is sooner.", "description": "System-level information includes default and customized settings and security attributes, including ACLs that relate to the network device configuration, as well as software required for the execution and operation of the device. Information system backup is a critical step in ensuring system integrity and availability. If the system fails and there is no backup of the system-level information, a denial of service condition is possible for all who use this critical network component.\n\nThis control requires the network device to support the organizational central backup process for system-level information associated with the network device. This function may be provided by the network device itself; however, the preferred best practice is a centralized backup rather than each network device performing discrete backups.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76211", "title": "CounterACT must support organizational requirements to conduct backups of information system documentation, including security-related documentation, when changes occur or weekly, whichever is sooner.", "description": "Information system backup is a critical step in maintaining data assurance and availability. Information system and security-related documentation contains information pertaining to system configuration and security settings. If this information were not backed up, and a system failure were to occur, the security settings would be difficult to reconfigure quickly and accurately. Maintaining a backup of information system and security-related documentation provides for a quicker recovery time when system outages occur.\n\nThis control requires the network device to support the organizational central backup process for user account information associated with the network device. This function may be provided by the network device itself; however, the preferred best practice is a centralized backup rather than each network device performing discrete backups.", "severity": "low" }, { "id": "V-76213", "title": "CounterACT must obtain its public key certificates from an appropriate certificate policy through an approved service provider.", "description": "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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76215", "title": "CounterACT must obtain its public key certificates from an appropriate certificate policy through an approved service provider.", "description": "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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76217", "title": "CounterACT must enable Threat Protection notifications to alert security personnel to Cyber events detected by a CounterACT IAW CJCSM 6510.01B.", "description": "CJCSM 6510.01B, \"Cyber Incident Handling Program\", in subsection e.(6)(c) sets forth requirements for Cyber events detected by an automated system.\n\nBy immediately displaying an alarm message, potential security violations can be identified more quickly even when administrators are not logged into the network device.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76219", "title": "CounterACT appliances performing maintenance functions must restrict use of these functions to authorized personal only.", "description": "There are security-related issues arising from software brought into the network device specifically for diagnostic and repair actions (e.g., a software packet sniffer installed on a device to troubleshoot system traffic or a vendor installing or running a diagnostic application to troubleshoot an issue with a vendor-supported device). If maintenance tools are used by unauthorized personnel, they may accidentally or intentionally damage or compromise the system.\n\nThis requirement addresses security-related issues associated with maintenance tools used specifically for diagnostic and repair actions on organizational network devices. Maintenance tools can include hardware, software, and firmware items. Maintenance tools are potential vehicles for transporting malicious code, either intentionally or unintentionally, into a facility and subsequently into organizational information systems. Maintenance tools can include, for example, hardware/software diagnostic test equipment and hardware/software packet sniffers.\n\nThis requirement does not cover hardware/software components that may support information system maintenance yet are a part of the system (e.g., the software implementing \"ping,\" \"ls,\" \"ipconfig,\" or the hardware and software implementing the monitoring port of an Ethernet switch).", "severity": "high" }, { "id": "V-76221", "title": "CounterACT must employ automated mechanisms to centrally apply authentication settings.", "description": "The use of authentication servers or other centralized management servers for providing centralized authentication services is required for network device management. Maintaining local administrator accounts for daily usage on each network device without centralized management is not scalable or feasible. Without centralized management, it is likely that credentials for some network devices will be forgotten, leading to delays in administration, which leads to delays in remediating production problems and addressing compromises in a timely fashion.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76223", "title": "CounterACT must disable all unnecessary and/or nonsecure plugins.", "description": "CounterACT is capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services provided by default may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations. Additionally, it is sometimes convenient to provide multiple services from a single component (e.g., email and web services); however, doing so increases risk over limiting the services provided by any one component.\n\nIf the 802.1x plugin is installed and there are no wireless APs or controllers directly managed by CounterACT, the wireless plugin should be disabled. The wireless plugin enabled with no configuration will also produce a finding.", "severity": "high" }, { "id": "V-76225", "title": "CounterACT must terminate all network connections associated with an Enterprise Manager Console session upon Exit, or session disconnection, or after 10 minutes of inactivity, except where prevented by documented and validated mission requirements.", "description": "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.\n\nTerminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, deallocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level or deallocating 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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76227", "title": "CounterACT must terminate all network connections associated with an SSH connection session upon Exit, session disconnection, or after 10 minutes of inactivity, except where prevented by documented and validated mission requirements.", "description": "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.\n\nTerminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, deallocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level or deallocating 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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76229", "title": "CounterACT must allow only authorized administrators to view or change the device configuration, system files, and other files stored either in the device or on removable media.", "description": "This protection is required to prevent unauthorized alteration, corruption, or disclosure of information when not stored directly on the network device.\n\nFiles on the network device or on removable media used by the device must have their permissions set to allow read or write access to those accounts that are specifically authorized to access or change them. Note that different administrative accounts or roles will have varying levels of access.\n\nFile permissions must be set so that only authorized administrators can read or change their contents. Whenever files are written to removable media and the media is removed from the device, the media must be handled appropriately for the classification and sensitivity of the data stored on the device.\n\nFlash drive usage must comply with DoD external storage and flash drive policy which includes permission to use and malware verification processes.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76231", "title": "If any logs are stored locally which are not sent to the centralized audit server, CounterACT must back up audit records at least every seven days onto a different system or system component than the system or component being audited.", "description": "Protection of log data includes ensuring log data is not accidentally lost or deleted. Regularly backing up audit records to a different system or onto separate media than the system being audited helps to ensure, in the event of a catastrophic system failure, the audit records will be retained.\n\nThis helps to ensure a compromise of the information system being audited does not also result in a compromise of the audit records.\n\nThis requirement can be met by using of a syslog/audit log server if the device is configured to send logs to that server.\n\nBackup requirements would be levied on the target server but are not a part of this check.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76233", "title": "CounterACT must limit privileges to change the software resident within software libraries.", "description": "Changes to any software components of the network device can have significant effects on the overall security of the network. Therefore, only qualified and authorized individuals should be allowed administrative access to the network device for implementing any changes or upgrades. If CounterACT were to enable unauthorized users to make changes to software libraries, those changes could be implemented without undergoing testing, validation, and approval.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76235", "title": "CounterACT must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.", "description": "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.\n\nPassword 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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76237", "title": "CounterACT must sent audit logs to a centralized audit server (i.e., syslog server).", "description": "Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.\n\nOff-loading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76239", "title": "CounterACT must record time stamps for audit records that can be mapped to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).", "description": "If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis.\n\nTime stamps generated by the application include date and time. Time is expressed in UTC.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76241", "title": "CounterACT must be configured to synchronize internal information system clocks with the organizations primary and secondary NTP servers.", "description": "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.\n\nMultiple 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. CounterACT appliances 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.\n\nDoD-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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76243", "title": "CounterACT must restrict the ability to change the auditing to be performed within the system log based on selectable event criteria to the audit administrators role or to other roles or individuals.", "description": "If authorized individuals do not have the ability to modify auditing parameters in response to a changing threat environment, the organization may not be able to effectively respond, and important forensic information may be lost.\n\nThis requirement enables organizations to extend or limit auditing as necessary to meet organizational requirements. Auditing that is limited to conserve information system resources may be extended to address certain threat situations. In addition, auditing may be limited to a specific set of events to facilitate audit reduction, analysis, and reporting. Organizations can establish time thresholds in which audit actions are changed, for example, in near real time, within minutes, or within hours.\n\nThe individuals or roles to change the auditing are dependent on the security configuration of the network device. For example, it may be configured to allow only some administrators to change the auditing, while other administrators can review audit logs but not reconfigure auditing. Because this capability is so powerful, organizations should be extremely cautious about only granting this capability to fully authorized security personnel.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76245", "title": "CounterACT must authenticate any endpoint used for network management before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using cryptographically based bidirectional authentication.", "description": "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.\n\nA 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).\n\nBecause of the challenges of applying this requirement on a large scale, organizations are encouraged to only apply the requirement to those limited number (and type) of devices that truly need to support this capability. For network device management, this has been determined to be network management device addresses, SNMP authentication, and NTP authentication. Use of non-secure versions of management protocols with well-known exploits puts the system at immediate risk.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76247", "title": "CounterACT must authenticate SNMPv3 endpoint devices before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based.", "description": "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.\n\nA 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).\n\nFor network device management, this has been determined to be network management device addresses, SNMP authentication, and NTP authentication. Use of non-secure versions of management protocols with well-known exploits puts the system at immediate risk.", "severity": "high" }, { "id": "V-76249", "title": "In the event the authentication server is unavailable, one local account must be created for use as the account of last resort.", "description": "Authentication for administrative (privileged-level) access to the device is required at all times. An account can be created on CounterACT's local database for use in an emergency, such as 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 since the emergency administration account is strictly intended to be used only as a last resort when immediate administrative access is absolutely necessary.\n\nThe number of local accounts is restricted to one. The username and password for the emergency account is contained within a sealed envelope kept in a safe. All other users/groups should leverage the external directory. Remove any other accounts using Single-Local. The default admin account may be used to fulfill this requirement (requires DoD compliant password or cryptographically generated shared secret).", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76251", "title": "CounterACT must automatically lock the account until the locked account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful logon attempts in 15 minutes are exceeded.", "description": "By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76253", "title": "The network device must terminate shared/group account credentials when members leave the group.", "description": "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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76255", "title": "The network device must be configured to use a centralized authentication server to authenticate privileged users for remote and nonlocal access for device management.", "description": "The use of authentication servers or other centralized management servers for providing centralized authentication services is required for network device management. Maintaining local administrator accounts for daily usage on each network device without centralized management is not scalable or feasible. Without centralized management, it is likely that credentials for some network devices will be forgotten, leading to delays in administration, which itself leads to delays in remediating production problems and in addressing compromises in a timely fashion.", "severity": "low" }, { "id": "V-76257", "title": "CounterACT must retain the Standard Mandatory DoD Notice and Consent Banner on the screen until the administrator acknowledges the usage conditions and takes explicit actions to log on for further access.", "description": "The administrator must acknowledge the banner prior to CounterACT allowing the administrator access to CounterACT. This provides assurance that the administrator has seen the message and accepted the conditions for access. If the consent banner is not acknowledged by the administrator, DoD will not be in compliance with system use notifications required by law.\n\nTo 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.\n\nIn 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.", "severity": "low" }, { "id": "V-76259", "title": "CounterACT must compare internal information systems clocks at least every 24 hours with an authoritative time server.", "description": "Inaccurate time stamps make it more difficult to correlate events and can lead to an inaccurate analysis. Determining the correct time a particular event occurred on a system is critical when conducting forensic analysis and investigating system events.\n\nSources outside of the configured acceptable allowance (drift) may be inaccurate. Additionally, unnecessary synchronization may have an adverse impact on system performance and may indicate malicious activity. Synchronizing internal information system clocks provides uniformity of time stamps for information systems with multiple system clocks and systems connected over a network.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76261", "title": "Administrative accounts for device management must be configured on the authentication server and not the network device itself (except for the account of last resort).", "description": "The use of authentication servers or other centralized management servers for providing centralized authentication services is required for network device management. Maintaining local administrator accounts for daily usage on each network device without centralized management is not scalable or feasible. Without centralized management, it is likely that credentials for some network devices will be forgotten, leading to delays in administration, which leads to delays in remediating production problems and addressing compromises in a timely fashion.\n\nAdministrative accounts for network device management must be configured on the authentication server and not the network device itself. This requirement does not apply to the account of last resort.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76263", "title": "If multifactor authentication is not supported and passwords must be used, CounterACT must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one upper-case character be used.", "description": "Use of a 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.\n\nPassword 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.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76265", "title": "If multifactor authentication is not supported and passwords must be used, CounterACT must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lower-case character be used.", "description": "Some devices may not have the need to provide a group authenticator; this is considered a matter of device design. In those instances where the device design includes the use of a group authenticator, this requirement will apply. This requirement applies to accounts created and managed on or by the network device.", "severity": "medium" }, { "id": "V-76267", "title": "CounterACT must limit the number of concurrent sessions to an organization-defined number for each administrator account type.", "description": "Network device management includes the ability to control the number of administrators and management sessions that manage a device. Limiting the number of allowed administrators and sessions per administrator is helpful in limiting risks related to DoS attacks.\n\nThis requirement addresses concurrent sessions for administrative accounts and does not address concurrent sessions by a single administrator via multiple administrative accounts. The maximum number of concurrent sessions should be defined based upon mission needs and the operational environment for each system.", "severity": "low" } ] }