Cisco tells Nexus switch owners to disable POAP feature for security reasons
Credit:
ZDNet
In a security alert published today, Cisco has advised owners of Nexus switches to disable a feature called PowerOn Auto Provisioning (POAP) for security reasons.
POAP is currently enabled by default in NX-OS, the operating system running on Nexus --Cisco's line of data center and traffic-heavy switches. POAP is an automatic provisioning and zero-touch deployment feature that assists device owners in the initial deployment and configuration of Nexus switches.
The feature works by checking for a local configuration script. If the script has been deleted, the switch has been reset to factory settings, or this is the first boot-up, the POAP daemon will connect to a preset list of servers to download an initial configuration file.
