The Cisco Embedded Services Routers 6300 (herein after referred to as the ESR6300) is a purpose-built, routing platform that includes VPN functionality provided by the Cisco IOS-XE software.
\r\nThe ESR6300 consists of the following architectural features and components:
\r\nThe TOE comprises both software and hardware. The hardware models included in the evaluation are the ESR-6300-NCP-K9 and ESR-6300-CON-K9. The TOE software for each platform comprises Cisco IOS-XE version 17.15.
","security_evaluation_summary":"The evaluation was carried out in accordance to the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme (CCEVS) requirements and guidance. The evaluation demonstrated that the TOE meets the security requirements contained in the Security Target. The criteria against which the TOE was judged are described in the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation, Version 3.1, Revision 5, April 2017. The evaluation methodology used by the evaluation team to conduct the evaluation is the Common Methodology for Information Technology Security Evaluation, Evaluation Methodology, Version 3.1, Revision 5, April 2017. The product, when delivered and configured as identified in the Cisco Cisco Embedded Services Router (ESR) 6300 v17.15 Common Criteria Configuration Guide, Version 1.0, July 14, 2025 document, satisfies all of the security functional requirements stated in the Cisco Embedded Services Router (ESR) 6300 v17.15 Common Criteria Security Target, Version 1.0, July 14, 2025. The project underwent CCEVS Validator review. The evaluation was completed in July 2025. Results of the evaluation can be found in the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme Validation Report (report number CCEVS-VR-VID11582-2025) prepared by CCEVS.
","environmental_strengths":"The logical boundaries of the Embedded Services Router (ESR) 6300 are realized in the security functions that it implements. Each of these security functions is summarized below.
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Security audit:
\r\nThe TOE provides extensive auditing capabilities. The TOE can audit events related to cryptographic functionality, identification and authentication, and administrative actions. The TOE generates an audit record for each auditable event. Each security relevant audit event has the date, timestamp, event description, and subject identity. The administrator configures auditable events, performs back-up operations and manages audit data storage. The TOE provides the administrator with a circular audit trail. The TOE is configured to transmit its audit messages to an external syslog server over an encrypted channel.
\r\nCryptographic support:
\r\nThe TOE provides cryptography in support of other TOE security functionality. All the algorithms claimed have CAVP certificates (Operational Environment = Marvell Armada Cortex-A72 ARMv8). The TOE leverages the IOS Common Cryptographic Module (IC2M) Rel5a. The TOE provides cryptography in support of VPN connections and remote administrative management via SSHv2 and IPsec to secure the transmission of audit records to the remote syslog server. In addition, IPsec is used to secure the session between the TOE and the authentication servers.
\r\nIdentification and authentication:
\r\nThe TOE performs two types of authentication: device-level authentication of the remote device (VPN peers) and user authentication for the Authorized Administrator of the TOE. Device-level authentication allows the TOE to establish a secure channel with a trusted peer. The secure channel is established only after each device authenticates the other. Device-level authentication is performed via IKE/IPsec mutual authentication. The TOE supports use of IKEv1 (ISAKMP) and IKEv2 pre-shared keys for authentication of IPsec tunnels. The TOE uses X.509v3 certificates as defined by RFC 5280 to support authentication for IPsec connections. The IKE phase authentication for the IPsec communication channel between the TOE and authentication server and between the TOE and syslog server is considered part of the Identification and Authentication security functionality of the TOE.
\r\nSecurity management:
\r\nThe TOE provides secure administrative services for management of general TOE configuration and the security functionality provided by the TOE. All TOE administration occurs either through a secure SSHv2 session or via a local console connection. The TOE provides the ability to securely manage:
\r\nThe TOE supports two separate administrator roles: non-privileged administrator and privileged administrator. Only the privileged administrator can perform the above security relevant management functions. Management of the TSF data is restricted to Security Administrators. The ability to enable, disable, determine and modify the behavior of all of the security functions of the TOE is restricted to authorized administrators.
\r\nAdministrators can create configurable login banners to be displayed at time of login, and can also define an inactivity timeout for each admin interface to terminate sessions after a set period of inactivity.
\r\nPacket filtering:
\r\nThe TOE provides packet filtering and secure IPsec tunneling. The tunnels can be established between two trusted VPN peers and the TOE. More accurately, these tunnels are sets of security associations (SAs). The SAs define the protocols and algorithms to be applied to sensitive packets and specify the keying material to be used. SAs are unidirectional and are established per the ESP security protocol. An authorized administrator can define the traffic that needs to be protected via IPsec by configuring access lists (permit, deny, log) and applying these access lists to interfaces using crypto map sets.
\r\nProtection of the TSF:
\r\nThe TOE protects against interference and tampering by untrusted subjects by implementing identification, authentication, and access controls to limit configuration to Authorized Administrators. The TOE prevents reading of cryptographic keys and passwords. Additionally, Cisco IOS-XE is not a general-purpose operating system and access to Cisco IOS-XE memory space is restricted to only Cisco IOS-XE functions.
\r\nThe TOE has an internal clock; the TOE, however, synchronizes time with an NTP server and then internally maintains the date and time. This date and time are used as the timestamp that is applied to audit records generated by the TOE.
\r\nThe TOE is able to verify any software updates prior to the software updates being installed on the TOE to avoid the installation of unauthorized software. Whenever a failure occurs within the TOE that results in the TOE ceasing operation, the TOE securely disables its interfaces to prevent the unintentional flow of any information to or from the TOE and reloads.
\r\nFinally, the TOE performs testing to verify correct operation of the router itself and that of the cryptographic module.
\r\nTOE access:
\r\nThe TOE can terminate inactive sessions after an Authorized Administrator configurable time period. Once a session has been terminated the TOE requires the user to re-authenticate to establish a new session. Sessions can also be terminated if an Authorized Administrator enters the “exit” command.
\r\nThe TOE can also display a Security Administrator specified banner on the CLI management interface prior to allowing any administrative access to the TOE.
\r\nTrusted path/channels:
\r\nThe TOE allows trusted paths to be established to itself from remote administrators over SSHv2, and initiates outbound IPsec tunnels to transmit audit messages to remote syslog servers. In addition, IPsec is used to secure the session between the TOE and the authentication servers. The TOE can also establish trusted paths of peer-to-peer IPsec sessions. The peer-to-peer IPsec sessions can be used for securing the communications between the TOE and authentication server/syslog server, as well as to protect communications with a CA or remote administrative console. In addition, IPsec is used to secure the session between the TOE and the remote authentication servers and uses NTPv4 to secure the connection to the NTP server.
","features":[{"id":3210,"feature_name":"Asymmetric Key Generation"},{"id":3326,"feature_name":"Auditing"},{"id":3207,"feature_name":"Certificate Authentication"},{"id":3208,"feature_name":"Certificate Validation"},{"id":3213,"feature_name":"Cryptographic Hashing"},{"id":3211,"feature_name":"Cryptographic Key Establishment"},{"id":3212,"feature_name":"Cryptographic Signature Verification"},{"id":3209,"feature_name":"DRBG"},{"id":3325,"feature_name":"Flaw Remediation"},{"id":3206,"feature_name":"IPsec"},{"id":3214,"feature_name":"Keyed-hash message authentication"},{"id":3204,"feature_name":"SSH Server"},{"id":3205,"feature_name":"VPN Gateway"}]}