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Difficulty: MediumNetwork Logging and Auditing

A network administrator is updating core switch configurations to align with a security mandate requiring both cryptographic authentication and full payload encryption for network monitoring traffic. The legacy implementation relies on unencrypted management queries using community strings. Which protocol version and security level combination should the administrator configure to meet this mandate?

  1. SNMPv3 with authPriv security levelAnswer
  2. B
    SNMPv3 with authNoPriv security level
  3. C
    SNMPv2c with explicit community string encryption
  4. D
    Syslog configured to transport management packets over TCP port 23

Answer

SNMPv3 configured with the authPriv security level is required because it provides both cryptographic authentication and data privacy through payload encryption.
SNMPv3 with the authPriv (Authentication and Privacy) security level uses cryptographic hashing (such as SHA) for authentication and symmetric encryption algorithms (such as AES) to encrypt all management payloads. This satisfies the requirement for authenticated access and encrypted telemetry.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the mandate requirements
The requirement specifies cryptographic authentication AND full payload encryption.
Security policies for administrative network monitoring often require protection against both spoofing and eavesdropping.
2
Evaluate Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) security models
SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c use cleartext community strings (noPriv/noAuth). SNMPv3 introduces USM with three security levels: noAuthNoPriv, authNoPriv, and authPriv.
Only SNMPv3 features modern User-based Security Model (USM) capabilities.
3
Select the SNMPv3 level matching both authentication and privacy requirements
authPriv offers authentication (using MD5/SHA) and privacy/encryption (using DES/AES).
authNoPriv lacks payload privacy (encryption), while authPriv fulfills both criteria.

Key Concept

SNMPv3 Security Models (authPriv vs authNoPriv)
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Topics

Network Logging and Auditing

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