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Security Hole In SNMP

Posted by timothy on from the so-never-mail-passwords dept.

wiredog writes: "From ZDNET comes the news that there is apparently a serious security flaw in the Simple Network Management Protocol, used to control routers and other network devices." An anonymous reader points to the CERT advisory as well.

1 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. No security in SNMPv1 by Simpler · · Score: 4, Interesting
    SNMP v1 as defined in RFC 1213 and RFC 1215 has no security features built in to begin with. You have to go to SNMP v2 or v3.

    This means that if you like to configure yoru routers using SNMPv1 and someone intercepts your UDP packet, they can read the community string (normally used as an ad-hock password) you use and have access to your NE (network element).

    This is a common security failure with a LOT of telecom equipment. Normally, if you enable SNMP on your boxes, keep the conguration port (normally found outside of service ports) inside a private LAN and hope for the best!

    And the kicker is, I work for a telecom company implementing SNMP solutions on OOSes and EMSes. Even after 5 years or SNMPv2 being out (SNMPv3 has also come out in the last few years), most NE's being produced on the market (save for the big boys -- Nortel, Cisco, etc) come with standard SNMPv1 managment and configuration capabilities. Safe surfing.