AAA Services used for 802.1x must be configured to authenticate network endpoint devices (supplicants) before the authenticator establishes any connection.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-204693	SRG-APP-000394	SRG-APP-000394-AAA-000430	SV-204693r961503_rule	2024-12-04	2

Description
Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. For distributed architectures (e.g., service-oriented architectures), the decisions regarding the validation of authentication claims may be made by services separate from the services acting on those decisions. In such situations, it is necessary to provide authentication decisions (as opposed to the actual authenticators) to the services that need to act on those decisions. This requirement applies to applications that connect either locally, remotely, or through a network to an endpoint device (including but not limited to workstations, printers, servers [outside a datacenter], VoIP phones, VTC CODECs). Gateways and SOA applications are examples of where this requirement would apply. Device authentication is a solution enabling an organization to manage devices. It is an additional layer of authentication ensuring only specific pre-authorized devices can access the system.

Description

Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. For distributed architectures (e.g., service-oriented architectures), the decisions regarding the validation of authentication claims may be made by services separate from the services acting on those decisions. In such situations, it is necessary to provide authentication decisions (as opposed to the actual authenticators) to the services that need to act on those decisions. This requirement applies to applications that connect either locally, remotely, or through a network to an endpoint device (including but not limited to workstations, printers, servers [outside a datacenter], VoIP phones, VTC CODECs). Gateways and SOA applications are examples of where this requirement would apply. Device authentication is a solution enabling an organization to manage devices. It is an additional layer of authentication ensuring only specific pre-authorized devices can access the system.

ℹ️ Check
If AAA Services are not used for 802.1x endpoint identification and authentication, this is not applicable. Verify AAA Services are configured to authenticate supplicants before the authenticator establishes any connection. If AAA Services are not configured to authenticate supplicants before the authenticator establishes any connection, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure AAA Services to authenticate supplicants before the authenticator establishes any connection.