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Difficulty: EasyDevice Access Control and Local Password Authentication

A network administrator runs the `show running-config` command on a Cisco switch and observes the following user configuration entry:

`username netadmin secret 5 11 mER7$19f.aB3z7QkL9p0`

Which statement accurately describes the security mechanism used to store this password?

  1. A
    The password is encrypted using the reversible Cisco Type 7 algorithm.
  2. The password is hashed using the MD5 algorithm (Type 5).Answer
  3. C
    The password is stored in plain text and protected only by physical security controls.
  4. D
    The password is encrypted using PBKDF2 with SHA-256 (Type 8).

Answer

The password is hashed using the MD5 algorithm (Type 5).
The option stating that the password is hashed using the MD5 algorithm (Type 5) is correct because the number 5 following the 'secret' keyword in Cisco IOS configuration syntax indicates an MD5 cryptographic hash. MD5 hashing creates a one-way digest to secure local user credentials.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the configuration string syntax.
Identify the keyword 'secret' followed by the algorithm indicator '5'.
Cisco IOS uses numeric identifiers following the 'secret' or 'password' keyword to denote the encryption or hashing algorithm used.
2
Map the numerical identifier to the corresponding cryptographic algorithm.
Identifier 5 corresponds to the MD5 password hash (Type 5).
Type 0 is plain text, Type 7 is weak reversible encryption, Type 5 is MD5 hashing, Type 8 is PBKDF2 SHA-256, and Type 9 is scrypt.

Key Concept

Cisco IOS Password Types and Hashing Algorithms
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Topics

Device Access Control and Local Password Authentication

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