The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-2, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules, details the U.S. government requirements for cryptographic modules. FIPS 140-2 specifies that a cryptographic module should be a set of hardware, software, firmware, or some combination that implements cryptographic functions or processes, including cryptographic algorithms and, optionally, key generation, and is contained within a defined cryptographic boundary.

FIPS specifies certain cryptographic algorithms as secure, and it also identifies which algorithms should be used if a cryptographic module is to be called FIPS compliant.

The following guidelines and limitations apply to FIPS:

• When FIPS is enabled, FIPS is applied across the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC).

• When FIPS is enabled, you must disable FIPS before you downgrade the Cisco APIC to a release that does not support FIPS.

• Make your passwords a minimum of eight characters in length.

• In the 6.0(2) release, disable Telnet. Log in using only SSH. Telnet is not supported in 6.0(2) and later releases.

• Delete all SSH Server RSA1 keypairs.

• Secure Shell (SSH) and SNMP are supported.

• Disable SNMP v1 and v2. Any existing user accounts on the switch that have been configured for SNMPv3 should be configured only with SHA for authentication and AES for privacy.

• Starting with the 2.3(1) release, FIPS can be configured at the switch level.

• Starting with the 3.1(1) release, when FIPs is enabled, NTP will operate in FIPS mode, Under FIPS mode NTP supports authentication with HMAC-SHA1 and no authentication.

• In the 5.2(3) release and earlier, after enabling FIPS on the Cisco APIC, reload the dual supervisor spine switches twice for FIPS to take effect.

• In the 5.2(4) release and later, after enabling FIPS on the Cisco APIC, reload and then power cycle the dual supervisor spine switches for FIPS to take effect.

• In the 5.2(3) release and earlier, on a dual supervisor spine switch that has FIPS enabled, if all the supervisors are replaced, then the spine switch must be reloaded twice for FIPS to take effect.

• In the 5.2(4) release and later, on a dual supervisor spine switch that has FIPS enabled, if all supervisors are replaced, then the spine switch must be reloaded and then power cycled for FIPS to take effect.

• In the 5.2(3) release and earlier, disable the RADIUS and TACACS+ remote authentication methods. Only the local and LDAP authentication methods are supported in FIPS mode.

• In the 5.2(4) release and later, disable the RADIUS, TACACS+, and RSA remote authentication methods. Only the local, LDAP, OAuth2, and SAML authentication methods are supported in FIPS mode.