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Network Security Checklist

Note: See online on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/CL_SecuNet.asp
J.D. Meier, Alex Mackman, Michael Dunner, Srinath Vasireddy, Ray Escamilla and Anandha Murukan

Microsoft Corporation

June 2003

Router Considerations

* Latest patches and updates are installed.
* You subscribed to router vendor's security notification service.
* Known vulnerable ports are blocked.
* Ingress and egress filtering is enabled. Incoming and outgoing packets are confirmed as coming from public or internal networks.
* ICMP traffic is screened from the internal network.
* Administration interfaces to the router are enumerated and secured.
* Web-facing administration is disabled.
* Directed broadcast traffic is not received or forwarded.
* Unused services are disabled (for example, TFTP).
* Strong passwords are used.
* Logging is enabled and audited for unusual traffic or patterns.
* Large ping packets are screened.
* Routing Information Protocol (RIP) packets, if used, are blocked at the outermost router.

Firewall Considerations

* Latest patches and updates are installed.
* Effective filters are in place to prevent malicious traffic from entering the perimeter
* Unused ports are blocked by default.
* Unused protocols are blocked by default.
* IPsec is configured for encrypted communication within the perimeter network.
* Intrusion detection is enabled at the firewall.

Switch Considerations

* Latest patches and updates are installed.
* Administrative interfaces are enumerated and secured.
* Unused administrative interfaces are disabled.
* Unused services are disabled.
* Available services are secured.

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