Secure Administration Access

[deck02]

We are a multi-site, multi-pbx, international environment. We are exclusively Avaya, mostly G3r's. At the present time, we are accessing our switches via data-mods to perform administrative tasks. We have the ability to go to IP, but our network security people feel that this would create a risk (we have had incidents of hacking within the company). I have been asked to find a way to provide a secure method of access via IP. So far, the only thing I have come up with is installing a small firewall at each switch and only allowing connections from known MAC addresses. As you might imagine, this is going to be very expensive. Is SSH available? Has anyone else experienced a similiar challenge? What did you do?

 

[ken07734]

if your switches have CLAN then the only thing you need to worry about is someone hacking the login and password, if you cycle it on a regular basis you should be ok.

 

[Bobg1]

If your network security people are concerned, They should be even more concerned about the data they take care of.
If proper firewalls are in place there really should be no "extra" worry.

 

[avayad]

I believe that SSH is an option. I can find evidence that SSH is supported on ASA and BCMSvu this would indicate that SSH only needs to be enabled on the definity. I think it is quite common that Avaya uses port 5023 in clear text. Effectively telnet but on a different port. Changing the passwords regularly is pointless as it is very simple to capture the user name and password every time you login.

I am also looking for information on how to enable SSH on S8700 or CM2 pbx.