Users Guide

• All open SSH and Telnet sessions, as well as all SCP and FTP file transfers, are closed.
• Any existing host keys (both RSA and RSA1) are deleted from system memory and NVRAM storage.
• FIPS mode is enabled.
○ If you enable the SSH server when you enter the fips mode enable command, it is re-enabled for version 2 only.
○ If you re-enable the SSH server, a new RSA host key-pair is generated automatically. You can also manually create this key-pair
using the crypto key generate command.
NOTE: Under certain unusual circumstances, it is possible for the fips enable command to indicate a failure.
• This failure occurs if any of the self-tests fail when you enable FIPS mode.
• This failure occurs if there were existing SSH/Telnet sessions that could not be closed successfully in a reasonable
amount of time. In general, this failure can occur if a user at a remote host is in the process of establishing an SSH
session to the local system, and has been prompted to accept a new host key or to enter a password, but is not
responding to the request. Assuming this failure is a transient condition, attempting to enable FIPS mode again
should be successful.
To enable FIPS mode, use the following command.
• Enable FIPS mode from a console port.
CONFIGURATION
fips mode enable
The following warning message displays:
WARNING: Enabling FIPS mode will close all SSH/Telnet connections, restart those servers, and
destroy all configured host keys. Proceed (y/n) ?
Generating Host-Keys
The following describes hot-key generation.
When you enable or disable FIPS mode, the system deletes the current public/private host-key pair, terminates any SSH sessions that are
in progress (deleting all the per-session encryption key information), actually enables/tests FIPS mode, generates new host-keys, and re-
enables the SSH server (assuming it was enabled before enabling FIPS).
For more information, refer to the SSH Server and SCP Commands section in the Security chapter of the Dell Networking OS Command
Line Reference Guide.
Monitoring FIPS Mode Status
To view the status of the current FIPS mode (enabled/disabled), use the following commands.
• Use either command to view the status of the current FIPS mode.
show fips status
show system
The following example shows the show fips status command.
Dell#show fips status
FIPS Mode : Enabled
for the system using the show system command.
The following example shows the show system command.
Disabling FIPS Mode
When you disable FIPS mode, the following changes occur:
• The SSH server disables.
• All open SSH and Telnet sessions, as well as all SCP and FTP file transfers, close.
• Any existing host keys (both RSA and RSA1) are deleted from system memory and NVRAM storage.
• FIPS mode disables.
• The SSH server re-enables.
FIPS Cryptography
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