- Preface
- Software Licensing
- The Cisco IOS command-line interface (CLI)
- Configuring Interfaces
- Switch Alarms
- Initial Switch Configuration (IP address assignments and DHCP autoconfiguration)
- How to Setup and Use the Cisco Configuration Engine
- How to Create and Manage Switch Clusters
- Performing Switch Administration
- Configuring Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
- Configuring PROFINET
- Common Industrial Protocol (CIP)
- Configuring SDM Templates
- Configuring Switch-Based Authentication
- Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
- MACsec
- Web-Based Authentication
- Configuring Smartports Macros
- Configuring SGACL Monitor Mode and SGACL Logging
- Configuring SGT Exchange Protocol over TCP (SXP) and Layer 3 Transport
- Configuring VLANs
- VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)
- Configuring Voice VLAN
- How to Configure Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
- Configuring MSTP
- Configuring Optional Spanning-Tree Features
- Configuring Resilient Ethernet Protocol
- Configuring the FlexLinks and the MAC Address-Table Move Update
- Configuring DHCP
- Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
- Configuring IP Source Guard
- How to Configure Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR)
- Configuring Port-Based Traffic Control
- Configuring LLDP, LLDP-MED, and Wired Location Service
- Configuring SPAN and RSPAN
- One-to-one (1:1) Layer 2 Network Address Translation (NAT)
- How to Configure CDP
- Configuring UniDirectional Link Detection (UDLD)
- Configuring RMON
- Configuring System Message Logging
- Configuring Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
- Network Security with ACLs
- Configuring Quality of Service (QoS)
- Configuring Static IP Unicast Routing
- Configuring IPv6 Host Functions
- Configuring Link State Tracking
- Configuring IP multicast routing
- Configuring Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP)
- Configuring Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) snooping
- Configuring HSRP and VRRP
- Configuring IPv6 access control lists (ACLs)
- Configuring Embedded Event Manager (EEM)
- IP Unicast Routing
- IPv6 Unicast Routing
- Unicast Routing Overview
- Configuring Cisco IOS IP SLAs Operations
- Configuring Dying-Gasp
- How to Configure Enhanced Object Tracking
- Configuring MODBUS TCP
- Configuring Ethernet CFM
- Working with the Flash File System
- How to Configure EtherChannels
- Troubleshooting
- How to use a Secure Digital (SD) flash memory module (SD card)
Configuring Dynamic ARP Inspection
Prerequisites for Dynamic ARP Inspection
■Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) inspection depends on the entries in the DHCP snooping binding database to verify IP-to-MAC address bindings in incoming ARP requests and ARP responses. Make sure to enable DHCP snooping to permit ARP packets that have dynamically assigned IP addresses.
Restrictions for Dynamic ARP Inspection
■To use this feature, the switch must be running the LAN Base image.
Information About Dynamic ARP Inspection
Dynamic ARP Inspection
Dynamic ARP inspection (DAI) helps prevent malicious attacks on the switch by not relaying invalid ARP requests and responses to other ports in the same VLAN.
ARP provides IP communication within a Layer 2 broadcast domain by mapping an IP address to a MAC address. For example, Host B wants to send information to Host A but does not have the MAC address of Host A in its ARP cache. Host B generates a broadcast message for all hosts within the broadcast domain to obtain the MAC address associated with the IP address of Host A. All hosts within the broadcast domain receive the ARP request, and Host A responds with its MAC address. However, because ARP allows a gratuitous reply from a host even if an ARP request was not received, an ARP spoofing attack and the poisoning of ARP caches can occur. After the attack, all traffic from the device under attack flows through the attacker’s computer and then to the router, switch, or host.
A malicious user can attack hosts, switches, and routers connected to your Layer 2 network by poisoning the ARP caches of systems connected to the subnet and by intercepting traffic intended for other hosts on the subnet. Figure 63 shows an example of ARP cache poisoning.
Hosts A, B, and C are connected to the switch on interfaces A, B and C, all of which are on the same subnet. Their IP and MAC addresses are shown in parentheses; for example, Host A uses IP address IA and MAC address MA. When Host A needs to communicate to Host B at the IP layer, it broadcasts an ARP request for the MAC address associated with IP address IB. When the switch and Host B receive the ARP request, they populate their ARP caches with an ARP binding for a host with the IP address IA and a MAC address MA; for example, IP address IA is bound to MAC address MA. When Host B responds, the switch and Host A populate their ARP caches with a binding for a host with the IP address IB and the MAC address MB.
Host C can poison the ARP caches of the switch, Host A, and Host B by broadcasting forged ARP responses with bindings for a host with an IP address of IA (or IB) and a MAC address of MC. Hosts with poisoned ARP caches use the MAC address MC as the destination MAC address for traffic intended for IA or IB. This means that Host C intercepts that traffic. Because Host C knows the true MAC addresses associated with IA and IB, it can forward the intercepted traffic to those hosts by using the correct MAC address as the destination. Host C has inserted itself into the traffic stream from Host A to Host B, the classic man-in-the middle attack.
DAI is a security feature that validates ARP packets in a network. It intercepts, logs, and discards ARP packets with invalid IP-to-MAC address bindings. This capability protects the network from certain man-in-the-middle attacks.
DAI ensures that only valid ARP requests and responses are relayed. The switch performs these activities:
■Intercepts all ARP requests and responses on untrusted ports
■Verifies that each of these intercepted packets has a valid IP-to-MAC address binding before updating the local ARP cache or before forwarding the packet to the appropriate destination
DAI determines the validity of an ARP packet based on valid IP-to-MAC address bindings stored in a trusted database, the DHCP snooping binding database. This database is built by DHCP snooping if DHCP snooping is enabled on the VLANs and on the switch. If the ARP packet is received on a trusted interface, the switch forwards the packet without any checks. On untrusted interfaces, the switch forwards the packet only if it is valid.
Interface Trust States and Network Security
DAI associates a trust state with each interface on the switch. Packets arriving on trusted interfaces bypass all DAI validation checks, and those arriving on untrusted interfaces undergo the DAI validation process.
In a typical network configuration, you configure all switch ports connected to host ports as untrusted and configure all switch ports connected to switches as trusted. With this configuration, all ARP packets entering the network from a given switch bypass the security check. No other validation is needed at any other place in the VLAN or in the network. You configure the trust setting by using the ip arp inspection trust interface configuration command.
Caution: Use the trust state configuration carefully. Configuring interfaces as untrusted when they should be trusted can result in a loss of connectivity.
In Figure 64, assume that both Switch A and Switch B are running DAI on the VLAN that includes Host 1 and Host 2. If Host 1 and Host 2 acquire their IP addresses from the DHCP server connected to Switch A, only Switch A binds the IP-to-MAC address of Host 1. Therefore, if the interface between Switch A and Switch B is untrusted, the ARP packets from Host 1 are dropped by Switch B. Connectivity between Host 1 and Host 2 is lost.
Figure 64 ARP Packet Validation on a VLAN Enabled for DAI
Configuring interfaces to be trusted when they are actually untrusted leaves a security hole in the network. If Switch A is not running DAI, Host 1 can easily poison the ARP cache of Switch B (and Host 2, if the link between the switches is configured as trusted). This condition can occur even though Switch B is running DAI.
DAI ensures that hosts (on untrusted interfaces) connected to a switch running DAI do not poison the ARP caches of other hosts in the network. However, DAI does not prevent hosts in other portions of the network from poisoning the caches of the hosts that are connected to a switch running DAI.
If some switches in a VLAN run DAI and other switches do not, configure the interfaces connecting these switches as untrusted. However, to validate the bindings of packets from non-DAI switches, configure the switch running DAI with ARP ACLs. When you cannot determine the bindings, at Layer 3 isolate switches running DAI from switches not running DAI switches.
Note: Depending on the setup of the DHCP server and the network, it might not be possible to validate a given ARP packet on all switches in the VLAN.
Rate Limiting of ARP Packets
The switch CPU performs DAI validation checks; therefore, the number of incoming ARP packets is rate-limited to prevent a denial-of-service attack. By default, the rate for untrusted interfaces is 15 packets per second (pps). Trusted interfaces are not rate-limited. You can change this setting by using the ip arp inspection limit interface configuration command.
When the rate of incoming ARP packets exceeds the configured limit, the switch places the port in the error-disabled state. The port remains in that state until you intervene. You can use the errdisable recovery global configuration command to enable error-disable recovery so that ports automatically emerge from this state after a specified timeout period.
Note: Unless you configure a rate limit on an interface, changing the trust state of the interface also changes its rate limit to the default value for that trust state. After you configure the rate limit, the interface retains the rate limit even when its trust state is changed. If you enter the no ip arp inspection limit interface configuration command, the interface reverts to its default rate limit.
Relative Priority of ARP ACLs and DHCP Snooping Entries
DAI uses the DHCP snooping binding database for the list of valid IP-to-MAC address bindings.
ARP ACLs take precedence over entries in the DHCP snooping binding database. The switch uses ACLs only if you configure them by using the ip arp inspection filter vlan global configuration command. The switch first compares ARP packets to user-configured ARP ACLs. If the ARP ACL denies the ARP packet, the switch also denies the packet even if a valid binding exists in the database populated by DHCP snooping.
Logging of Dropped Packets
When the switch drops a packet, it places an entry in the log buffer and then generates system messages on a rate-controlled basis. After the message is generated, the switch clears the entry from the log buffer. Each log entry contains flow information, such as the receiving VLAN, the port number, the source and destination IP addresses, and the source and destination MAC addresses.
You use the ip arp inspection log-buffer global configuration command to configure the number of entries in the buffer and the number of entries needed in the specified interval to generate system messages. You specify the type of packets that are logged by using the ip arp inspection vlan logging global configuration command.
A log-buffer entry can represent more than one packet. For example, if an interface receives many packets on the same VLAN with the same ARP parameters, the switch combines the packets as one entry in the log buffer and generates a single system message for the entry.
If the log buffer overflows, it means that a log event does not fit into the log buffer, and the display for the show ip arp inspection log privileged EXEC command is affected. Dashes in the display appears in place of all data except the packet count and the time. No other statistics are provided for the entry. If you see this entry in the display, increase the number of entries in the log buffer or increase the logging rate.
Default Dynamic ARP Inspection Settings
Dynamic ARP Inspection Configuration Guidelines
■DAI is an ingress security feature; it does not perform any egress checking.
■DAI is not effective for hosts connected to switches that do not support DAI or that do not have this feature enabled. Because man-in-the-middle attacks are limited to a single Layer 2 broadcast domain, separate the domain with DAI checks from the one with no checking. This action secures the ARP caches of hosts in the domain enabled for DAI.
■DAI depends on the entries in the DHCP snooping binding database to verify IP-to-MAC address bindings in incoming ARP requests and ARP responses. Make sure to enable DHCP snooping to permit ARP packets that have dynamically assigned IP addresses. For configuration information, see Configuring Dynamic ARP Inspection
When DHCP snooping is disabled or in non-DHCP environments, use ARP ACLs to permit or to deny packets.
■DAI is supported on access ports, trunk ports, EtherChannel ports, and private VLAN ports.
Note: Do not enable DAI on RSPAN VLANs. If DAI is enabled on RSPAN VLANs, DAI packets might not reach the RSPAN destination port.
■A physical port can join an EtherChannel port channel only when the trust state of the physical port and the channel port match. Otherwise, the physical port remains suspended in the port channel. A port channel inherits its trust state from the first physical port that joins the channel. Consequently, the trust state of the first physical port need not match the trust state of the channel.
Conversely, when you change the trust state on the port channel, the switch configures a new trust state on all the physical ports that comprise the channel.
■The operating rate for the port channel is cumulative across all the physical ports within the channel. For example, if you configure the port channel with an ARP rate-limit of 400 pps, all the interfaces combined on the channel receive an aggregate 400 pps. The rate of incoming ARP packets on EtherChannel ports is equal to the sum of the incoming rate of packets from all the channel members. Configure the rate limit for EtherChannel ports only after examining the rate of incoming ARP packets on the channel-port members.
The rate of incoming packets on a physical port is checked against the port-channel configuration rather than the physical-ports configuration. The rate-limit configuration on a port channel is independent of the configuration on its physical ports.
If the EtherChannel receives more ARP packets than the configured rate, the channel (including all physical ports) is placed in the error-disabled state.
■Make sure to limit the rate of ARP packets on incoming trunk ports. Configure trunk ports with higher rates to reflect their aggregation and to handle packets across multiple DAI-enabled VLANs. You also can use the ip arp inspection limit none interface configuration command to make the rate unlimited. A high rate-limit on one VLAN can cause a denial-of-service attack to other VLANs when the software places the port in the error-disabled state.
■When you enable DAI on the switch, policers that were configured to police ARP traffic are no longer effective. The result is that all ARP traffic is sent to the CPU.
How to Configure Dynamic ARP Inspection
Configuring Dynamic ARP Inspection in DHCP Environments
This procedure shows how to configure DAI when two switches support this feature. Host 1 is connected to Switch A, and Host 2 is connected to Switch B as shown in Figure 64. Both switches are running DAI on VLAN 1 where the hosts are located. A DHCP server is connected to Switch A. Both hosts acquire their IP addresses from the same DHCP server. Therefore, Switch A has the bindings for Host 1 and Host 2, and Switch B has the binding for Host 2.
You must perform this procedure on both switches. This procedure is required.
Configuring ARP ACLs for Non-DHCP Environments
This procedure shows how to configure DAI when Switch B shown in Figure 64 does not support DAI or DHCP snooping.
If you configure port 1 on Switch A as trusted, a security hole is created because both Switch A and Host 1 could be attacked by either Switch B or Host 2. To prevent this possibility, you must configure port 1 on Switch A as untrusted. To permit ARP packets from Host 2, you must set up an ARP ACL and apply it to VLAN 1. If the IP address of Host 2 is not static (it is impossible to apply the ACL configuration on Switch A) you must separate Switch A from Switch B at Layer 3 and use a router to route packets between them.
|
|
|
---|---|---|
Defines an ARP ACL, and enters ARP access-list configuration mode. By default, no ARP access lists are defined. Note: At the end of the ARP access list, there is an implicit deny ip any mac any command. |
||
Permits ARP packets from the specified host (Host 2). ■ sender-ip— Enters the IP address of Host 2. ■ sender-mac —Enters the MAC address of Host 2. ■(Optional) log —Logs a packet in the log buffer when it matches the access control entry (ACE). Matches are logged if you also configure the matchlog keyword in the ip arp inspection vlan logging global configuration command. For more information, see Configuring the Log Buffer. |
||
ip arp inspection filter arp-acl-name vlan vlan-range [ static ] |
Applies the ARP ACL to the VLAN. By default, no defined ARP ACLs are applied to any VLAN. ■ arp-acl-name —Specifies the name of the ACL created in Step 2. ■ vlan-range —Specifies the VLAN that the switches and hosts are in. You can specify a single VLAN identified by VLAN ID number, a range of VLANs separated by a hyphen, or a series of VLANs separated by a comma. The range is 1 to 4096. ■(Optional) static —Specifies to treat implicit denies in the ARP ACL as explicit denies and to drop packets that do not match any previous clauses in the ACL. DHCP bindings are not used. If you do not specify this keyword, it means that there is no explicit deny in the ACL that denies the packet, and DHCP bindings determine whether a packet is permitted or denied if the packet does not match any clauses in the ACL. ARP packets containing only IP-to-MAC address bindings are compared against the ACL. Packets are permitted only if the access list permits them. |
|
Specifies the Switch A interface that is connected to Switch B, and enters interface configuration mode. |
||
Configures the Switch A interface that is connected to Switch B as untrusted. By default, all interfaces are untrusted. For untrusted interfaces, the switch intercepts all ARP requests and responses. It verifies that the intercepted packets have valid IP-to-MAC address bindings before updating the local cache and before forwarding the packet to the appropriate destination. The switch drops invalid packets and logs them in the log buffer according to the logging configuration specified with the ip arp inspection vlan logging global configuration command. |
||
Limiting the Rate of Incoming ARP Packets
Performing Validation Checks
Configuring the Log Buffer
Monitoring and Maintaining Dynamic ARP Inspection
Configuration Examples for Dynamic ARP Inspection
Configuring Dynamic ARP Inspection in DHCP Environments: Example
This example shows how to configure DAI on Switch A in VLAN 1. You would perform a similar procedure on Switch B:
Configuring ARP ACLs for Non-DHCP Environments: Example
This example shows how to configure an ARP ACL called host2 on Switch A, to permit ARP packets from Host 2 (IP address 1.1.1.1 and MAC address 0001.0001.0001), to apply the ACL to VLAN 1, and to configure port 1 on Switch A as untrusted:
Additional References
The following sections provide references related to switch administration:
Related Documents
|
|
---|---|
Standards
|
|
---|---|
No new or modified standards are supported by this feature, and support for existing standards has not been modified by this feature. |
MIBs
|
|
---|---|
To locate and download MIBs using Cisco IOS XR software, use the Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL and choose a platform under the Cisco Access Products menu: http://cisco.com/public/sw-center/netmgmt/cmtk/mibs.shtml |
RFCs
|
|
---|---|
No new or modified RFCs are supported by this feature, and support for existing RFCs has not been modified by this feature. |