The Juniper SRX Services Gateway must be configured to use a centralized authentication server to authenticate privileged users for remote and nonlocal access for device management.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
high	V-229025	SRG-APP-000516-NDM-000317	JUSX-DM-000097	SV-229025r1015761_rule	2024-12-20	3

Description
Centralized management of authentication settings increases the security of remote and nonlocal access methods. This control is a particularly important protection against the insider threat. Audit records for administrator accounts access to the organization's network devices can be more readily analyzed for trends and anomalies. The alternative method of defining administrator accounts on each device exposes the device configuration to remote access authentication attacks and system administrators with multiple authenticators for each network device. The Juniper SRX supports three methods of user authentication: local password authentication, Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), and Terminal Access Controller Access Control System Plus (TACACS+). RADIUS and TACACS+ are remote access methods used for management of the Juniper SRX. The local password method will be configured for use only for the account of last resort; however, it will not be used for remote and nonlocal access or this will result in a CAT 1 finding (CCI-000765). This requirement references identification and authentication and does not prevent the configuration of privileges using the remote template account (CCI-000213).

Description

Centralized management of authentication settings increases the security of remote and nonlocal access methods. This control is a particularly important protection against the insider threat. Audit records for administrator accounts access to the organization's network devices can be more readily analyzed for trends and anomalies. The alternative method of defining administrator accounts on each device exposes the device configuration to remote access authentication attacks and system administrators with multiple authenticators for each network device. The Juniper SRX supports three methods of user authentication: local password authentication, Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), and Terminal Access Controller Access Control System Plus (TACACS+). RADIUS and TACACS+ are remote access methods used for management of the Juniper SRX. The local password method will be configured for use only for the account of last resort; however, it will not be used for remote and nonlocal access or this will result in a CAT 1 finding (CCI-000765). This requirement references identification and authentication and does not prevent the configuration of privileges using the remote template account (CCI-000213).

ℹ️ Check
Verify the Juniper SRX is configured to forward logon requests to a RADIUS or TACACS+. From the CLI operational mode enter: show system radius-server or show system tacplus-server If the Juniper SRX is not configured to use at least one RADIUS or TACACS+ server, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure the Juniper SRX to forward logon requests to a RADIUS or TACACS+. Remove local users configured on the device (CCI-000213) so the AAA server cannot default to using a local account. [edit] set system tacplus-server address <server ipaddress> port 1812 secret <shared secret> or [edit] set system radius-server address <server ipaddress> port 1812 secret <shared secret> Note: DOD policy is that redundant AAA servers are required to mitigate the risk of a failure of the primary AAA device.

✔️ Fix

Configure the Juniper SRX to forward logon requests to a RADIUS or TACACS+. Remove local users configured on the device (CCI-000213) so the AAA server cannot default to using a local account. [edit] set system tacplus-server address <server ipaddress> port 1812 secret <shared secret> or [edit] set system radius-server address <server ipaddress> port 1812 secret <shared secret> Note: DOD policy is that redundant AAA servers are required to mitigate the risk of a failure of the primary AAA device.