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This document provides information to help you harden your Cisco Firepower eXtensible Operating System (FXOS) on 4100 and
9300 platform devices, which increases the overall security of your network. For hardening information on other components
of your Firepower deployment, see the following documents:
The three functional planes of a network - the management, control, and data planes, each provide a different functionality
that must be protected.
Management Plane
The management plane contains the logical group of all traffic that supports provisioning, maintenance, and monitoring functions
for Cisco FXOS. Traffic in this group includes HTTP/HTTPS, SSH, FTP, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Syslog, TACACS+,
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), and DNS. Management plane traffic is always destined to the local Cisco
FXOS.
Control Plane
The control plane contains the logical group of all switching, signaling, link-state, and other control protocols that are
used to create and maintain the state of the network and interfaces such as Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), and Link
Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). Control plane traffic is always destined to the local Cisco FXOS device.
Data Plane
The data plane contains the logical group of customer application traffic generated by hosts, clients, servers, and applications
that are sourced from and destined to other similar devices supported by the network.
This document is structured in three sections:
Secure Network Operations
Management Plane Hardening
User Management
Although most of this document is devoted to secure configuration of a Cisco FXOS device, configurations alone do not completely
secure a network. The operational procedures in use on the network, as well as the people who administer the network, contribute
as much to security as the configuration of the underlying devices. Where possible and appropriate, this document contains
recommendations that, if implemented, help secure a Cisco FXOS deployment.
Security Certifications Compliance
Note that your organization might be required to use only equipment and software that comply with security standards established
by the U.S. Department of Defense or other governmental certification organizations.
When configured in accordance with certification-specific guidance documents the Firepower System supports compliance with
the following certification standards:
Common Criteria (CC): a global standard established by the international Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement, defining
requirements for security products.
Department of Defense Information Network Approved Products List (DoDIN APL): a list of products meeting security requirements
established by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). NOTE: The U.S. Government has changed the name of the Unified
Capabilities Approved Products List (UCAPL) to the DoDIN APL. References to UCAPL in Firepower documentation and the Firepower
Management Center web interface can be interpreted as references to DoDIN APL.
Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140: a requirements specification for encryption modules.
Certification guidance documents are available separately once product certifications have completed; publication of this
hardening guide does not guarantee completion of any of these product certifications.