Cisco 7970G Administration Guide - Page 34

Understanding Security Features for Cisco Unified IP Phones Chapter 1 An Overview of the Cisco Unified IP Phone Table 1-3 Overview of Security Features Feature Image authentication Customer-site certificate installation Device authentication File authentication Signaling Authentication Manufacturing installed certificate Description Signed binary files (with the extension .sbn) 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. 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 CAPF (Certificate Authority Proxy Function). Alternatively, you can install an LSC from the Security Configuration menu on the phone. See the "Configuring Security on the Cisco Unified IP Phone" section on page 3-17 for more information. 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 using TLS protocol. Cisco Unified Communications Manager does not register phones unless they can be authenticated by the Cisco Unified Communications Manager. 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. Uses the TLS protocol to validate that no tampering has occurred to signaling packets during transmission. 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. 1-16 Cisco Unified IP Phone 7970G/7971G-GE Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1 OL-14626-01