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NMIS supports using SNMPv3 for securing the collection of sensitive network information.  This is especially important from core switches and routers which if compromised could have a considerable business impact.  This configuration note does not include details about the SNMPv3 protocol, and assumes that people are wanting to use the authPriv (Authentication and Privilege) mode which is the most secure.

NOTE: From NMIS 9.5.2, SHA256 and AES256 support is enabled by the installer (if selected)

Table of Contents

IMPORTANT NOTE ON 256 BIT ENCRYPTION PROTOCOL SUPPORT

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Updating NMIS9 to support SHA256 and AES256 including Cisco variants

From NMIS 9.5.2, SHA256 and AES256 support is enabled by the installer (if selected and passes Net::SNMP v6 requirements), so the instructions below are not required.

The history of encryption in SNMPv3 is long and winding and possibly interesting to some people, the reality is that the only consistency with SNMPv3 implementations is the inconsistency in the implementations by different vendors and projects.  Frequently combinations of protocols are not supported (or do not work), so you need to find the matching combinations.

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NMIS9 nameNameOIDNotes
desusmDESPrivProtocol1.3.6.1.6.3.10.1.2.1RFC3411
3desusm3DESPrivProtocol1.3.6.1.4.1.14832.1RFC3411
aes (or aes128)usmAESCfb128PrivProtocol1.3.6.1.4.1.14832.2Blumenthal implementation of SNMPv3
aes192usmAESCfb192PrivProtocol1.3.6.1.4.1.14832.3Blumenthal implementation of SNMPv3
aes256usmAESCfb256PrivProtocol1.3.6.1.4.1.14832.4Blumenthal implementation of SNMPv3
aes192ccusmAESCfb192PrivProtocol

1.3.6.1.4.1.9.12.6.1.1

Cisco implementation of SNMPv3 AES192
aes256ccusmAESCfb256PrivProtocol1.3.6.1.4.1.9.12.6.1.2Cisco implementation of SNMPv3 AES256
aes192c2

usmAES192Cisco2PrivProtocol

1.3.6.1.4.1.9.12.6.1.101A mysterious version 2 of the Cisco implementation, possibly related to pysnmp
aes256c2usmAES256Cisco2PrivProtocol1.3.6.1.4.1.9.12.6.1.102A mysterious version 2 of the Cisco implementation, possibly related to pysnmp

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Copy the shipped USM.pm from the contrib folder and replace the Net::SNMP v6.0.1 version.

NOTE: NMIS 9.5.2 will place the USM.pm file into the NMIS lib structure and does not change lib files outside of the nmis9 directory

On RedHat 8 based systems (including our CentOS Virtual Machine)

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Many Cisco devices will support SHA256 but only AES128 (which given the entropy is reasonable "AES-128 would take about 2.61*10^12 years to crack" https://www.ubiqsecurity.com/128bit-or-256bit-encryption-which-to-use/).

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