Cisco Systems vpn tunel security

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Subject Author Date
vpn tunel security sali 11-26-07
Posted by sali on November 26, 2007, 6:29 pm
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we have vpn corporate network with cisco/1721 and cisco/805 routers over the
internet
since it is quite old equip, can somebody advice how secure are those
tunnels going over internet today?

as i understand, they depends on secret preshared key of certain bit-length
with dramatical computational power rising, is there danger that somebody on
the net my break the security of those vpn tunnels, either in reading the
data, or even injecting something into the stream

so, do i need to worry, or these routers and their vpn settings are still
safe?

thnx



Posted by Brian V on November 26, 2007, 6:47 pm
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> we have vpn corporate network with cisco/1721 and cisco/805 routers over
> the internet
> since it is quite old equip, can somebody advice how secure are those
> tunnels going over internet today?
>
> as i understand, they depends on secret preshared key of certain
> bit-length
> with dramatical computational power rising, is there danger that somebody
> on the net my break the security of those vpn tunnels, either in reading
> the data, or even injecting something into the stream
>
> so, do i need to worry, or these routers and their vpn settings are still
> safe?
>
> thnx
>

The only real vunerabilty on a VPN tunnel is whats called a man in the
middle attack. That would have to happen at one of the 2 physical locations
or at one of the pops that that the traffic passes thru. A "user" that is
simply on the internet cannot simply break in to your tunnel. There are lots
of other things you should be worried about besides the tunnel. Both pieces
of equipment are EOL/EOS which means they are running out dated software
that most certainly has vunerabilites. I'd be more worried about that than
the tunnel!


Posted by sali on November 26, 2007, 7:28 pm
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well, they were payed quite expensive, and for many years they work quite
well [we have simply star topology, with static routes, no dynamic
connection comming from outside]

since they are outdated eol/eos, does it mean they have to be replaced with
new [also expensive] ones, or we can simply wait untile some of them
experience some fatal hw shock, and be replaced then?

i am in the process of interrogating my network and trying to estimate
potential treats and cost analysis

any experience and advice is helpfull
thnx

>
>> we have vpn corporate network with cisco/1721 and cisco/805 routers over
>> the internet
>> since it is quite old equip, can somebody advice how secure are those
>> tunnels going over internet today?
>> thnx
>>
> Both pieces of equipment are EOL/EOS which means they are running out
> dated software that most certainly has vunerabilites.



Posted by Brian V on November 26, 2007, 10:53 pm
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>
>>
>>> we have vpn corporate network with cisco/1721 and cisco/805 routers over
>>> the internet
>>> since it is quite old equip, can somebody advice how secure are those
>>> tunnels going over internet today?
>>> thnx
>>>
>> Both pieces of equipment are EOL/EOS which means they are running out
>> dated software that most certainly has vunerabilites.
>
>

> well, they were payed quite expensive, and for many years they work quite
> well [we have simply star topology, with static routes, no dynamic
> connection comming from outside]
>
> since they are outdated eol/eos, does it mean they have to be replaced
> with new [also expensive] ones, or we can simply wait untile some of them
> experience some fatal hw shock, and be replaced then?
>
> i am in the process of interrogating my network and trying to estimate
> potential treats and cost analysis
>
> any experience and advice is helpfull
> thnx

Please dont top post, it makes it very difficult for people to read and
respond to the threads.
A simple "Star" topology would be refering to a private infrastructure, not
a publically facing VPN setup. If by star you are refering to the VPN
tunnels that you have then yes, without question you should be running
modern updated equipment running current software. As attack signatures and
vulnerabilities are introduced vendors bring out updated software to address
those attacks. On your out dated equipment those vulnerabilites still exist
and can be exploited. Internal routers are a different story in my opinion,
those can run "older" software as they are not public facing and do not face
the same exploits that edge routers face. You comment on equipment being
"expensive", I beg to differ. Equipment these days is very reasonably
priced. A modern 2801 router probably costs less than you paid for the 1700
series you have. What is the cost of your corporate private information,
what would it cost you if your customer information was stolen? Is it worth
more than the couple grand you'll pay for a new edge router? If so, then you
have your answer already. In addition to that, VPN should never be run from
the edge router, it should be being run from a corporate firewall or
dedicated VPN appliance. Edge internet routers should be doing simple
filtering, anti-spoofing, simple expoit stuff to keep the load off the
firewall. A properly designed and implemented network edge may be much more
reasonably priced than you think.


Posted by sali on November 27, 2007, 2:52 am
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grupi:6sednWDi-opzCdbanZ2dnUVZ_oCvnZ2d@comcast.com...
>
>>
>>>
>>>> we have vpn corporate network with cisco/1721 and cisco/805 routers
>>>> over the internet
>>>> since it is quite old equip, can somebody advice how secure are those
>>>> tunnels going over internet today?
>>>> thnx
>>>>
>>> Both pieces of equipment are EOL/EOS which means they are running out
>>> dated software that most certainly has vunerabilites.
>>
>>
>
>> well, they were payed quite expensive, and for many years they work quite
>> well [we have simply star topology, with static routes, no dynamic
>> connection comming from outside]
>>
>> since they are outdated eol/eos, does it mean they have to be replaced
>> with new [also expensive] ones, or we can simply wait untile some of them
>> experience some fatal hw shock, and be replaced then?
>>
>> i am in the process of interrogating my network and trying to estimate
>> potential treats and cost analysis
>>
>> any experience and advice is helpfull
>> thnx
>
> A simple "Star" topology would be refering to a private infrastructure,
> not a publically facing VPN setup. If by star you are refering to the VPN
> tunnels that you have then yes, without question you should be running
> modern updated equipment running current software. As attack signatures
> and vulnerabilities are introduced vendors bring out updated software to
> address those attacks. On your out dated equipment those vulnerabilites
> still exist and can be exploited. Internal routers are a different story
> in my opinion, those can run "older" software as they are not public
> facing and do not face the same exploits that edge routers face. You
> comment on equipment being "expensive", I beg to differ. Equipment these
> days is very reasonably priced. A modern 2801 router probably costs less
> than you paid for the 1700 series you have. What is the cost of your
> corporate private information, what would it cost you if your customer
> information was stolen? Is it worth more than the couple grand you'll pay
> for a new edge router? If so, then you have your answer already. In
> addition to that, VPN should never be run from the edge router, it should
> be being run from a corporate firewall or dedicated VPN appliance. Edge
> internet routers should be doing simple filtering, anti-spoofing, simple
> expoit stuff to keep the load off the firewall. A properly designed and
> implemented network edge may be much more reasonably priced than you
> think.


thnx for your suggestions.
they can help me to present a maintenance and upgrade costs to my management
[as they are allwasy "cutting" the costs].





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