Enterasys Enterasys Matrix DFE-Gold Series User's Guide download pdf (Page 34)

Configuring CLI Access Security

3-2 Using the CLI

• Repeatedcharacters(e.g.,“AAAAAA”or“999999ʺ)

•Sportsteamsorterms(suchas“Bulls”or“Golfer”)

•Favoriterecordingartist

•Obscenitiesorsexualterms

Inadditiontoavoidingweakpasswords,Enterasysalsorecommendsthatyou:

•DoNOTwritedownthepasswordandpostitneartheterminal.

•DoNOTusetheloginnameand

passwordofaformeremployee.

•Makesurethatsomeonebesidesthenetworkadministratorknowstheadministrative

(master)accountusernameandpasswordandteststhemperiodically.Thispreventsyou

fromlosingaccesstoyournetworkshouldanythinghappentotheemployeeorifthe

relationshipwiththatemployeedeteriorates.

•Avoidusingthe

masteraccountforanythingbutadministration.Usingthisaccount

frequentlytoperformmundanenetworkoperationscanleadtounnecessaryaccidents.

•Disablenetwork“guest”accountswhennotinuse.

Creating Strong Passwords

Computerprogramsusedtohackpasswordsfallintothefollowingtwogeneralcategories:

• Dictionaryattacksinvolveusingwordsfroma“dictionary”ordatabaseoffrequently‐used

termstoattempttomatchthe userpassword(forexample:names,cities,andsportsteams).

• Bruteforceattacksfocusondiscoveringpasswordsusingsoftware

thatgeneratesasequence

ofcharactercombinations.Forexample,guessingathree‐characterpasswordthatusesonly

alphabeticalcharacters(A‐Z)wouldinvolvetestingalllettercombinationsbetweenAAA

andZZZ—atotalof17,576possiblecombinations.

Astrongpasswordisvitalbecausepasswordcrackingtoolscontinuetoimproveandthe

computers

usedtocrackpasswordsaremorepowerfulthanever.Networkpasswordsthatonce

tookweekstobreakarenowbebrokeninafewhours.Thestrengthofapasswordisproportional

toitslengthand complexity becausethelongerthepassword,thelongerittakestogenerateall

possiblecombinations.

Table 3‐1depictstherelativestrengthassociatedwithpasswordlength

andthecharactertypesallowed.

Table 3-1 Password Combinations

Number of Characters

in Password

Possible Combinations

(Letters A-Z only)

Possible Combinations

(Letters A-Z, with numbers 0-9)

126 36

2 676 1,296

3 17,576 46,656

4 456,976 1,679,616

5 11,881,376 60,466,176

6 308,915,776 2,176,782,336

7 8,031,810,176 78,364,164,096

8 208,827,064,576 2,821,109,907,456

1 2 ... 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 ... 137 138

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Enterasys Enterasys Matrix DFE-Gold Series User's Guide Page 34

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