Supporting 802.1X Authentication On Cisco Unified Ip Phones; Overview - Cisco 8961 Administration Manual

Understanding Security Features for Cisco Unified IP Phones
Table 1-8 Security Restrictions with Conference Calls
Initiator's Phone
Security Level Feature Used Security Level of Participants
Non-secure Conference
Secure Conference
Secure Conference
Non-secure MeetMe
Secure MeetMe

Supporting 802.1X Authentication on Cisco Unified IP Phones

These sections provide information about 802.1X support on the Cisco Unified IP Phones:
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Overview

Cisco Unified IP Phones and Cisco Catalyst switches traditionally use Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
to identify each other and determine parameters such as VLAN allocation and inline power
requirements. However, CDP is not used to identify any locally attached PCs; therefore, Cisco Unified
IP Phones provide an EAPOL pass-through mechanism, whereby a PC locally attached to the IP Phone,
may pass through EAPOL messages to the 802.1X authenticator in the LAN switch. This prevents the
IP Phone from having to act as the authenticator, yet allows the LAN switch to authenticate a data
endpoint before accessing the network.
In conjunction with the EAPOL pass-through mechanism, Cisco Unified IP Phones provide a proxy
EAPOL-Logoff mechanism. In the event that the locally attached PC is disconnected from the IP Phone,
the LAN switch would not see the physical link fail, because the link between the LAN switch and the
IP Phone is maintained. To avoid compromising network integrity, the IP Phone sends an
EAPOL-Logoff message to the switch, on behalf of the downstream PC, which triggers the LAN switch
to clear the authentication entry for the downstream PC.
The Cisco Unified IP Phones also contain an 802.1X supplicant, in addition to the EAPOL pass-through
mechanism. This supplicant allows network administrators to control the connectivity of IP Phones to
the LAN switch ports. The current release of the phone 802.1X supplicant uses the EAP-FAST,
EAP-TLS, and EAP-MD5 options for network authentication.
Cisco Unified IP Phone 8961, 9951, and 9971 Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.6 (SIP)
1-22
Secure
At least one member is
non-secure.
Secure.
Minimum security level is
encrypted
Minimum security level is
non-secure
Overview, page 1-22
Required Network Components, page 1-23
Best Practices—Requirements and Recommendations, page 1-23
Chapter 1 An Overview of the Cisco Unified IP Phone
Results of Action
Non-secure conference bridge
Non-secure conference
Secure conference bridge
Non-secure conference
Secure conference bridge
Secure encrypted level conference
Initiator receives message "Does not meet Security
Level, call rejected."
Only secure conference bridge available and used
Conference accepts all calls