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Table Of Contents
Release Notes for Management Center for Cisco Security Agents 5.1
File Integrity Check Instructions
SQL Server Desktop Engine Installation
Internationalization Support Tables
Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines
Location of CSA Documents on Cisco.com
Release Notes for Management Center for Cisco Security Agents 5.1
Revision Date: April 6, 2009
These release notes are for use with Management Center for Cisco Security Agents (CSA MC) 5.1. The following information is provided:
•File Integrity Check Instructions
•Cisco Security Agent Policies
•Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines
Installation Overview
Caution This Management Center for Cisco Security Agents V5.1 release is intended for new installations. You cannot upgrade to V5.1 from a previous version of the product.
You must have local administrator privileges on the system in question to perform the CSA MC installation. Once you've verified system requirements, you can begin the installation.
Caution After you install CSA MC, you should not change the name of the MC system. Changing the system name after the product installation will cause agent/CSA MC communication problems.
Obtaining a License Key
The Management Center for Cisco Security Agents CD contains a license key which is used to operate the MC itself. If you need further license keys, before deploying Cisco Security Agents, you should obtain a license key from Cisco. To receive your license key, you must use the Product Authorization Key (PAK) label affixed to the claim certificate for CSA MC located in the separate licensing envelope.
To obtain a production license, register your software at one of the following web sites.
If you are a registered user of Cisco.com, use this website:
http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/Software/FormManager/formgenerator.pl.
If you are not a registered user of Cisco.com, use this website: http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/Software/FormManager/formgenerator.pl.
After registration, the software license will be sent to the email address that you provided during the registration process.
File Integrity Check Instructions
You can perform integrity checks on the files provided with Management Center for Cisco Security Agents 5.1. Use the cisco_V(#)_verify_digests.exe file posted to CCO to check the MD5 hashes of the files. The MD5of the cisco_V(#)_verify_digests.exe file is posted on CCO to maintain a linked verification chain.
When you run the verify_digests.exe file, you can enter the CD drive letter and check the files on the CD itself or you can copy the files to your system and check them from the directory to which they were copied.
The following output is displayed:
•The output displays "OK" if the hashes match and the files are valid.
•If the hashes do not match, "Failure" is displayed. Contact Cisco if this occurs.
How to install obtain and install Management Center for Cisco Security Agents V5.1:
Note The Management Center for Cisco Security Agents V5.1 kit is signed by Cisco Systems. This can be verified using Windows Explorer File ->Properties ->Digital Signatures.
Step 1 Open a command prompt window and cd into the product directory. Run setup.exe. Alternatively, you can use Windows Explorer to navigate to the product directory. Then, double-click the setup.exe file to begin the installation.
Step 2 You can now follow the standard installation directions provided in the Installation Guide. The Installation Guide appears as a PDF file in the Documentation directory at the top level.
Note The agent kits are provided in test mode in order to minimize any possible adverse impact of initial agent installation.
The provided policies are meant as a starting point to enterprise security. In general, you will want to run in test mode and create exceptions with the event wizard to create a suitable rule set for your environment. At that point, you can remove your agents from the test mode group and allow them to operate in protect mode. Test mode is turned on in the Auto-enrollment groups for each OS type. From the Group page, expand the Rule overrides section and uncheck the Test mode checkbox to turn test mode off for that group. Then Generate rules.
Product Notes
The following are issues that exist with the product, but are not product bugs. Therefore, they are not in the bug list.
–Issue: The default Unix policy having to with rpatch or package installation and system management may cause the following issue. Some package or patch installations will attempt to write to agent-protected system files and will, by default, will be denied.
Solution: Administrators can perform maintenance, configuration or installation of packages using one of the following methods:
1. Locally in a trusted session such as Single User mode (init level 1) on Solaris or from a VTY session (Ctrl-Alt-F1) on Linux.
2. Remotely via SSH from a trusted host. In this case, the trusted host's IP address must be added to the list of trusted hosts on CSA MC.
3. Local Login via serial port.–Issue: In some environments, the shipped installation policy may not allow non-standard installations. It is recommended that you tune the policy accordingly or stop the agent service to allow the installation.
Solution: You may change the File access control rule from the previous version of CSA MC in this module to query the user if your security policy permits the use of the application in question.
–Issue: The pre-built reports configured for Analysis Deployment Investigation are meant as samples. You will likely have to edit or add to the existing report configurations to gather comprehensive information.
–Issue: Linux Agent UI: For gnome desktop environments, the install script will only modify the default session config file for launching the agent UI automatically every time a user starts a gnome desktop session. But if a user already has their own session file ( ~/.gnome2/session ), the default session file (/usr/share/gnome/default.session) will not be effective. Therefore, the agent UI will not automatically start when the user logs in. In such a case, the user must add the agent UI (/opt/CSCOsca/bin/ciscosecui) manually (using "gnome-session-properties" utility) to make the agent UI auto-start. The user may also need to add a panel notification area applet to the control panel.
–Issue: Data access control rules for iPlanet running on Solaris systems are untested and unsupported. CSA ships with a data filter that you must manually install to use Data access control rules for iPlanet applications on Solaris. If you use this functionality, be aware that it is unsupported and that this filter may be removed in a future release.
–Issue: There have been issues with Compaq/HP Teaming and the Cisco Security agent (CSA). Symptoms include the NICs not being enabled automatically after an agent installation. This has to do with issues between Compaq/HP Teaming software and the agent's network shim. This is an example of the behavior: Installing CSA on an HP DL380G2 server with an HP-NC3163 Ethernet card disables the ethernet card. After CSA is installed, and before the PC is rebooted to complete the installation, the ethernet adapter is disabled.
Solutions: There are several different solutions to this issue:
•Reboot the system immediately after CSA is installed.
•Dissolve the team before installing CSA. Then, re-create the team after CSA has been installed.
There may be other issues between CSA's network shim and Compaq/HP Teaming and thus we highly recommend dissolving the team prior to installing CSA if you plan to install the network shim.
–Issue: The "Desktop interface applications, client HTTP protocol" rule in the Windows System Hardening module prevents Windows Find Files/Folders functionality from accessing sa.windows.com. When the rule is applied, the event text reads like this:
"The process 'C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe' (as user HostName\Administrator) attempted to communicate with 10.123.124.125 on TCP port 80. The attempted access was to initiate a connection as a client (operation = CONNECT). The operation was denied." The Windows search function is vulnerable to a redirection attack and the rule is designed to prevent just such an attack.
–Issue: If the Local File Protection feature of the Cisco Security Agent UI is modified, the protection enforced continues to be enforced on previously opened files.
Solution: Note that once a File has been opened and marked as protected, that instance of the file will remain protected even if you remove it from the File Lock list. Only unchecking the enable box on the agent turns off the File Lock entirely. You can then re-enable the File Lock to continue to protect other files on the list.
New Features
This release contains the following new features.
Administrator LDAP Authentication
The CSA MC default authentication method for authenticating administrators to the system is local database configuration authentication. This is when administrator names and passwords are entered via CSA MC. Alternatively, you can configure CSA MC to authenticate administrators using LDAP. You must already have a configured LDAP server that can communicate with CSA MC to use this authentication type.
Administrator Role-based Configuration
Administrators can have different levels of CSA MC database access privileges. The initial administrator created by the CSA MC installation automatically has configure privileges. Edit or add administrator accounts on the MC from Maintenance>Administrators>Account Management.
Browser Support
The CSA MC V5.1 UI is no longer supported with Netscape Browsers. Support has been added for FireFox Version 1.5.0.x or higher.
MSDE Installation
If you selects to install MSDE as part of the CSA MC installation, the MSDE installation procedure is now "seamless." You are no longer required to reboot the server after the MSDE installation and then restart the CSA MC install as in past releases. Now, the CSA MC installation automatically proceeds after the MSDE installation completes. Only a single reboot at the end of the both installations is required.
Report Integration
CSA MC V5.1 UI no longer supports integration with SecMon for reporting. Integration with MARS is now supported.
Server Platform Support
CSA MC V5.1 is only supported on Windows 2003 R2 Standard or Enterprise Editions, Service Pack 0 or 1.
Standalone Server
CSA MC V5.1 is not part of the CiscoWorks/VMS product. It is a standalone server intended for new customers. There is no upgrade path to CSA MC V5.1.
System Requirements (CSA MC)
Table 1 shows the minimum CSA MC server requirements for Windows 2003 systems. These requirements are sufficient if you are running a pilot of the product or for deployments up to 500 agents. If you are planning to deploy CSA MC with more than 500 agents, these requirements are insufficient. See the Installation Guide for more detailed system requirements.
Table 1 Minimum Server Requirements
•Pager alerts require a Hayes Compatible Modem.
•For optimal viewing of the CSA MC UI, you should set your display to a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher.
•On a system where CSA MC has never been installed, the CSA MC setup program first installs MSDE with Service Pack 4. If the CSA MC installation detects any other database type attached to an existing installation of MSDE, the installation will abort. This database configuration is not supported.
•If MSDE Service Pack 2 or earlier is present on the system, you must uninstall that version of MSDE or upgrade it before proceeding further.
SQL Server Desktop Engine Installation
As part of the installation process on a system where CSA MC has not previously been installed, the setup program first installs Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE). You can use the included Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (provided with the product) if you are planning to deploy no more than 500 agents. When the MSDE installation completes, it may prompt you to reboot the system. In that case, you must reboot the system before restarting the CSA MC setup program. If the MSDE installation does not prompt you to reboot the system, you may restart the setup program without rebooting the system.
Caution If the CSA MC installation detects any other database type attached to an existing installation of MSDE, the CSA MC installation will abort. This database configuration is not supported by Cisco. (Installation process aborts if any databases other than those listed here are found: master, tempdb, model, msdb, pubs, Northwind, profiler and AnalyzerLog.)
For a local database configuration, you also have the option of installing Microsoft SQL Server 2000 instead of using the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine that is provided. Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine has a 2 GB limit. In this case, you can have CSA MC and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on the same system if you are planning to deploy no more than 5,000 agents. Note that of you are using SQL Server 2000, it must be licensed separately and it must be installed on the system before you begin the CSA MC installation. (See the Installation Guide for details on installation options.)
We also recommend that you format the disk to which you are installing CSA MC as NTFS. FAT32 limits all file sizes to 4 GB.
System Requirements (Agent)
To run Cisco Security Agent on your Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 servers and desktop systems, the requirements are as follows:
Table 2 Agent Requirements (Windows)
Note Cisco Security Agent uses approximately 30 MB of memory. This applies to agents running on all supported Microsoft and UNIX platforms.
To run Cisco Security Agent on your Solaris server systems, the requirements are as follows:
Table 3 Agent Requirements (Solaris)
Caution On Solaris systems running Cisco Security Agents, if you add a new type of Ethernet interface to the system, you must reboot that system twice for the agent to detect it and apply rules to it accordingly.
To run the Cisco Security Agent on your Linux systems, the requirements are as follows:
Table 4 Agent Requirements (Linux)
Upgrade Support
Upgrading to CSA MC V5.1 from previous versions of CSA MC is not supported.
Internationalization Support
All Cisco Security Agent kits contain localized support for English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish language desktops. This support is automatic in each agent kit and no action is required by the administrator. The agent UI, events, and help system will appear in the language of the end user's desktop.
The following table lists CSA localized support and qualification for various OS types.
Table 5 CSA Localizations
Explanation of terms:
Localized: Cisco Security Agent kits contain localized support for the languages identified in Table 5. This support is automatic in each agent kit and no action is required by the administrator. The agent UI, events, and help system will appear in the language of the end user's desktop. All localized languages are agent qualified and supported. (CSA MC is not localized.)
Qualified: The Cisco Security Agent was tested on these language platforms. Cisco security agent drivers are able to handle the local characters in file paths and registry paths. All qualified languages are supported.
Supported: The Cisco Security Agent is suitable to run on these language platforms. The localized characters are supported by all agent functions.
Refer to the following tables.
Internationalization Support Tables
The following tables detail the level of support for each localized version of Windows operating systems. Note that support for a localized operating system is different from localized agent. A localized operating system may be supported even though the corresponding language is not translated in the agent. In this case, the dialogs will appear in English. The tables below define the operating system support, not agent language support. Note, for Multilingual User Interface (MUI) supported languages, installs are always in English (Install shield does not support MUI), and the UI/dialogs are in English unless the desktop is Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, or Spanish.
Any Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 platforms/versions not mentioned in the tables below should be treated as not supported.
The following letter combinations are used to describe the level of support:
Table 6
Support Level Key
Table 7 Windows 2000 Support
Table 8 Windows XP Support
Table 9 Windows 2003 Support
On non-localized but tested and supported language platforms, the administrator is responsible for policy changes arising from directory naming variations between languages.
If the previous operating system tables do not indicate that CSA is localized (L), then the system administrator is responsible for checking to ensure that the tokens are in the language they expect and the directory path is the one they intend to protect. See Installing Management Center for Cisco Security Agents for the procedure to determine if language tokens are correct. Also note that if you are upgrading to V5.0 from a version earlier than 4.5, and you are carrying policies forward, you will want to change literal string system path references to token paths for localization purposes.
VMware Environment Support
The following tables provide support details for the Cisco Security Agents running in a VMware environment for host and guest operating systems.
Table 10 VMware Support
Overview
Note that the table above assumes that the VMware virtualization layer between the guest operating system and the host operating system isolates it from underlying differences. The following tables list the specific host and guest operating systems that this capability is qualified on. While other operating systems may work, only those listed here have been verified.
Table 11 VMware WS 5.0
Host OS Support
Table 12 VMware WS 5.0
Guest OS Support
Table 13 VMware GSX 3.2
Host OS Support
Table 14 VMware GSX 3.2
Guest OS Support
Windows Firewall Disabled
The Cisco Security Agent automatically disables the Windows XP and Windows 2003 firewall. This is done per recommendation of Microsoft in their HELP guide for their firewall. If you want to read this recommendation, you can access the "Windows Security Center" console from a Windows XP or Windows 2003 installation, click on "Windows Firewall", and select "on." The firewall status will warn you as follows: "Two or more firewalls running at the same time can conflict with each other. For more information see Why you should only use one firewall."
Because the Cisco Security Agent, in part, utilizes firewall-like components, the agent disables the Windows firewall per the recommendation from Microsoft.
Cisco Security Agent Policies
CSA MC default agent kits, groups, policies, rule modules, and configuration variables provide a high level of security coverage for desktops and servers. These default agent kits, groups, policies, rule modules, and configuration variables cannot anticipate all possible local security policy requirements specified by your organization's management, nor can they anticipate all local combinations of application usage patterns. We recommend deploying agents using the default configurations and then monitoring for possible tuning to your environment.
CSA MC System Default Policy
The CSA MC system itself requires a severely locked down policy to protect it. As a result, no Web browsing from the MC or running of mobile code of any kind is allowed. This includes automatic Windows update downloads. By default, Windows updates are not allowed on the CSA MC system.
Cisco VPN Client Support
Cisco Security Agent is a supported configuration for the "Are You
There?" feature of the Cisco VPN Client, Release 4.0. For configuration
details, please refer to Chapter 1 of the Cisco VPN Client Administrator
Guide, in the section entitled "Configuring VPN Client Firewall Policy—Windows Only."Known Issues
Table 15 provides information on known issues found in this release.
Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines
For information on obtaining documentation, obtaining support, providing documentation feedback, security guidelines, and also recommended aliases and general Cisco documents, see the monthly What's New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation, at:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html
Related CSA Documentation
This section describes the types and location of documentation for Management Center for Cisco Security Agents. These locations are subject to change.
•Installing Management Center for Cisco Security Agents 5.1 on Cisco.com at the following location:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps5057/prod_installation_guides_list.html.•Using Management Center for Cisco Security Agents 5.1 on Cisco.com at the following location:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps5057/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html•Release Notes for Management Center for Cisco Security Agents 5.1 on Cisco.com at the following location:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps5057/prod_release_notes_list.htmlLocation of CSA Documents on Cisco.com
You can find the documentation for the Management Center for Cisco Security Agents here:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps5057/tsd_products_support_series_home.html
To navigate to the area represented by the link, follow these steps:
Step 1 Browse to Cisco's home page, http://www.cisco.com.
Step 2 Mouse over the Products & Services menu and click Security.
Step 3 Scroll down to the Product Portfolio area.
Step 4 Find Endpoint Security and click Cisco Security Agent.
Step 5 Look for the Support box on the right side of the page.
Click Cisco Security Agent. This brings you to a linking page where you will find links to all CSA user documents.
Cisco Security Forum
If you would like to post questions or read what others are posting to the Cisco Security Forum concerning the Cisco Security Agent, go to the following location (You must have a valid CCO account to access this location):
http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=Security_discussion
Cisco Professional Services
If you are interested in contracting Cisco professional services to assist you in the deployment of the Cisco Security Agent and in the writing of CSA MC polices, inquire at the following location:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/svcs/services_area_root.html
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