CC Certificate 

Security Target 

Validation Report 

Assurance Activity 

Administrative Guide 

The Cisco ESR 5921 (TOE) is comprised of software.  The ESR 5921 is a Cisco Internet Operating System (IOS) software router deployed on a virtual machine (VM) instance on x86 server hardware. The Cisco ESR 5921 is deployed as a virtual machine on a ESXi 6.7 hypervisor. The software is comprised of Linux and the Universal Cisco Internet Operating System (IOS) software image Release 15.9M.

Cisco IOS 15.9M is a Cisco-developed highly configurable proprietary operating system that provides for efficient and effective routing and switching.  Although IOS performs many networking functions, this TOE only addresses the functions that provide for the security of the TOE itself as described in Section 1.8 Logical Scope of the Security Target.

PP-Configuration for Network Device and Virtual Private Network (VPN) Gateways (CFG_NDcPP-VPNGW_V1.1)

The TOE in the evaluated configuration contains the following:   

• Cisco UCS C-Series M5 Server or other general-purpose computing platforms with specified Intel processors as described in Section, 1.7 of the Security Target, Table 4

• VMware ESXi 6.7 Hypervisor

• The following minimum technical specs needed on the Cisco UCS Server or general-purpose computing platforms to support a single Cisco ESR 5921 guest Virtual Machine (VM) running Cisco IOS version 15.9M software:

o   Single hard disk

o   4 GB virtual disk

o   2 or more virtual network interface cards

o   The following Platform Specifications are recommended:

·       Processor - x86

·       Memory - 512 MB minimum

·       Disk Space - 300 MB minimum

·       Operating System - glibc compiled Linux

The TOE has two or more network interfaces and is connected to at least one internal and one external network.  The Cisco IOS 15.9M configuration determines how packets are handled to and from the TOE’s network interfaces.  The router configuration will determine how traffic flows received on an interface will be handled. Typically, packet flows are passed through the internetworking device and forwarded to their configured destination.

The evaluation was carried out in accordance with the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme (CCEVS) process and scheme. The criteria against which the Cisco Embedded Services Router 5921 (ESR5921) was evaluated are described in the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation, Version 3.1 rev 5.  The evaluation methodology used by the evaluation team to conduct the evaluation is the Common Methodology for Information Technology Security Evaluation, Version 3.1 rev 5.  Acumen Security determined that the evaluation assurance level (EAL) for the product is EAL 1.  The product, when delivered configured as identified in the Cisco Embedded Services Router 5921 (ESR5921) CC Configuration Guide, satisfies all of the security functional requirements stated in the Cisco Embedded Services Router 5921 (ESR5921) running IOS version 15.9M Security Target. The project underwent CCEVS Validator review.  The evaluation was completed in August 2022.  Results of the evaluation can be found in the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme Validation Report prepared by CCEVS.

The TOE is comprised of several security features. Each of the security features identified above consists of several security functionalities, as identified below.

Logical Scope of the TOE:

The TOE is comprised of several security features. Each of the security features identified above consists of several security functionalities, as identified below.

• Security Audit

• Cryptographic Support

• Identification and Authentication

• Security Management

• Protection of the TSF

• TOE Access

• Trusted Path/Channels

These features are described in more detail in the subsections below. In addition, the TOE implements all SFRs of the NDcPP v2.2e and MOD_VPNGW v1.1 as necessary to satisfy testing/assurance measures prescribed therein.

·       Security Audit

The 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 or a configurable audit trail threshold to track the storage capacity of the audit trail.  Audit logs are backed up over an encrypted channel to an external audit server.

·       Cryptographic Support

The TOE provides cryptography in support of other TOE security functionality. All the algorithms claimed have CAVP certificates.  The TOE leverages the IOS Common Cryptographic Module (IC2M) Rel5. 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.

·       Identification and Authentication

The 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 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.  

The TOE provides authentication services for administrative users to connect to the TOE’s secure CLI administrator interface.  The TOE requires Authorized Administrators to authenticate prior to being granted access to any of the management functionality.  The TOE can be configured to require a minimum password length of 15 characters. The TOE provides administrator authentication against a local user database.  Password-based authentication can be performed on the serial console or SSH interfaces.  The SSHv2 interface also supports authentication using SSH keys.  The TOE supports the use of a RADIUS AAA server (part of the IT Environment) for authentication of administrative users attempting to connect to the TOE’s CLI.

The TOE provides an automatic lockout when a user attempts to authenticate and enters invalid information.  After a defined number of authentication attempts fail exceeding the configured allowable attempts, the user is locked out until an authorized administrator can enable the user account. 

The TOE uses X.509v3 certificates as defined by RFC 5280 to support authentication for IPsec connections.

·       Packet Filtering

The TOE provides packet filtering and secure IPsec tunneling.  The tunnels can be established between two trusted VPN peers.  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.

·       Security Management

The 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:

o   Administration of the TOE locally and remotely;

o   All TOE administrative users;

o   All identification and authentication;

o   All audit functionality of the TOE;

o   All TOE cryptographic functionality;

o   The timestamps maintained by the TOE;

o   Update to the TOE and verification of the updates;

o   Configuration of IPsec functionality.

The 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.

Privileged administrators 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.

•Protection of the TSF

The 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 15.9M is not a general-purpose operating system and access to Cisco IOS 15.9M memory space is restricted to only Cisco IOS 15.9M functions.

The TOE internally maintains the date and time.  This date and time is used as the timestamp that is applied to audit records generated by the TOE.  Administrators can update the TOE’s clock manually.  Finally, the TOE performs testing to verify correct operation of the router itself and that of the cryptographic module.

The 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. 

• TOE Access

The 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” or “logout” command. 

The TOE can also display a Security Administrator specified banner on the CLI management interface prior to allowing any administrative access to the TOE.

• Trusted Path/Channels

The 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.

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