Security: Secure Sensitive Data Management
Configuration Files
Cisco 350XG & 550XG Series 10G Stackable Managed Switches
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files usually kept for archive, records, or recovery. During copying, uploading, and
downloading a source configuration file, a device automatically transforms the
source content to the format of the destination file if the two files are of different
formats.
File SSD Indicator
When copying the Running or Startup Configuration file into a text-based
configuration file, the device generates and places the file SSD indicator in the
text-based configuration file to indicate whether the file contains encrypted
sensitive data, plaintext sensitive data or excludes sensitive data.
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The SSD indicator, if it exists, must be in the configuration header file.
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A text-based configuration that does not include an SSD indicator is
considered not to contain sensitive data.
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The SSD indicator is used to enforce SSD read permissions on text-based
configuration files, but is ignored when copying the configuration files to the
Running or Startup Configuration file.
The SSD indicator in a file is set according to the user’s instruction, during copy, to
include encrypted, plaintext or exclude sensitive data from a file.
SSD Control Block
When a device creates a text-based configuration file from its Startup or Running
Configuration file, it inserts an SSD control block into the file if a user requests the
file is to include sensitive data. The SSD control block, which is protected from
tampering, contains SSD rules and SSD properties of the device creating the file.
A SSD control block starts and ends with "ssd-control-start" and "ssd-control-end"
respectively.
Startup Configuration File
The device currently supports copying from the Running, Backup, Mirror, and
Remote Configuration files to a Startup Configuration file. The configurations in the
Startup Configuration are effective and become the Running Configuration after
reboot. A user can retrieve the sensitive data encrypted or in plaintext from a
startup configuration file, subject to the SSD read permission and the current SSD
read mode of the management session.
