Co. Ltd. Modem User Manual

CiM-550 IP Enabled Satellite Modem Rev. 2
SNMP interface CD/CIM550.IOM
232
13.4.1.7 CIM SNMP COMMUNITY NAMES
The CiM-550 uses community strings as a password scheme that provides authentication
before gaining access to the CiM-550 agent’s MIBs.
In SNMP v1/v2c, the community string is sent unencrypted in the SNMP packets.
Caution must be taken by the network administrator to ensure that SNMP packets travel
only over a secure and private network if security is a concern. A packet sniffer can
easily obtain the community string by viewing the SNMP traffic on the network.
The community string is entered into the MIB Browser or Network Node Management
software and is used to authenticate users and determine access privileges to the SNMP
agent. The community string should match the concatenated user name and password.
For example, if the user name is “comtech” and the password is “donttell” then the
community string should be “comtechdonttell”.
Community strings are used to set up a three-tiered security scheme in the CiM-550. The
CiM-550 provides for three types of users in the system: an Admin User, a Read/Write
User, and a Read Only User. These users mirror those found in the CLI Name/Password
Configuration screen. The Admin User has read and write access to all parameters in all
standard and private MIBs. The Read/Write User has read and write access to all
parameters in the standard and private MIBs, except for the cimUnitAdmin Group in the
cimController MIB. The Read Only User has access to only read parameters from the
standard MIBs and the private CiM-550 MIB. The Read Only User cannot do any reads
(GETS) in the private CiM-550 IP Controller MIB.
Table 13-22. CiM SNMP Community Names
User Name
MIB-II IP Controller MIB CiM-550 MIB
Admin User
Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write
Read/Write User
Read/Write Read/Write (not Administration) Read/Write
Read Only User
Read No access Read