Configuring MD5 Authentication

Context

BGP uses TCP as the transmission protocol, and considers a packet valid as long as the source address, destination address, source port, destination port, and TCP sequence number of the packet are correct. However, most parameters in a packet may be easily obtained by attackers. To protect BGP from attacks, use MD5 authentication or keychain authentication between BGP peers to reduce the possibility of attacks. The MD5 algorithm is easy to configure and generates a single password that can only be manually changed.

If simple is selected during the configuration of the MD5 authentication password, the password is saved in the configuration file in plain text. This brings security risks. It is recommended that you select cipher to save the password in cipher text. MD5 authentication has potential security risks.

Procedure

Run system-view
The system view is displayed.
Run bgp { as-number-plain | as-number-dot }
The BGP view is displayed.
Run peer { ipv4-address | group-name | ipv6-address } password { cipher cipher-password | simple simple-password }
The MD5 authentication password is set.
- To prevent the MD5 password set on BGP peers from being decrypted, update the MD5 password periodically.
- BGP MD5 authentication and BGP keychain authentication are mutually exclusive, and only either of them can be configured for a BGP peer.