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Cisco Unified IP Phone 6901 and 6911 Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.6 (SCCP and SIP)
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Chapter 1 An Overview of the Cisco Unified IP Phone
Understanding Security Features for Cisco Unified IP Phones
Overview of Supported Security Features
Table 1-5
provides an overview of the security features that the Cisco Unified IP Phone 6901 and 6911
support. For more information about these features and about Cisco Unified Communications Manager
and Cisco Unified IP Phone security, refer to
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Security Guide
.
Note
Most security features are available only if a certificate trust list (CTL) is installed on the phone. For
more information about the CTL, refer to “Configuring the Cisco CTL Client” chapter in
Cisco Unified
Communications Manager Security Guide
.
Table 1-5
Overview of Security Features
Feature
Description
Image authentication
Signed binary files (with the extension .zz.sgn) prevent tampering with the firmware
image before it is loaded on a phone. Tampering with the image causes a phone to
fail the authentication process and reject the new image.
Customer-site certificate installation
Each Cisco Unified IP Phone requires a unique certificate for device authentication.
Phones include a manufacturing installed certificate (MIC), but for additional
security, you can specify in Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Administration that a certificate be installed by using the Certificate Authority
Proxy Function (CAPF). See the
“Configuring Security on the Cisco Unified IP
Phone” section on page 3-10
for more information.
Device authentication
Occurs between the Cisco Unified Communications Manager server and the phone
when each entity accepts the certificate of the other entity. Determines whether a
secure connection between the phone and a Cisco Unified Communications
Manager should occur and, if necessary, creates a secure signaling path between the
entities by using TLS protocol. Cisco Unified Communications Manager will not
register phones unless they can be authenticated by the Cisco
Unified Communications Manager.
File authentication
Validates digitally signed files that the phone downloads. The phone validates the
signature to make sure that file tampering did not occur after the file creation. Files
that fail authentication are not written to Flash memory on the phone. The phone
rejects such files without further processing.
Signaling Authentication
Uses the TLS protocol to validate that no tampering has occurred to signaling
packets during transmission.
Manufacturing installed certificate
Each Cisco Unified IP Phone contains a unique manufacturing installed certificate
(MIC), which is used for device authentication. The MIC is a permanent unique
proof of identity for the phone, and allows Cisco Unified Communications Manager
to authenticate the phone.
