352-001 · Question #5
How are community formats sent in SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c?
The correct answer is B. In both protocols they are sent as clear text. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c both transmit community strings as unencrypted clear text, making them vulnerable to interception. Only SNMPv3 introduced authentication and encryption.
Question
How are community formats sent in SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c?
Options
- AIn both protocols they are encrypted.
- BIn both protocols they are sent as clear text.
- CIn SNMPv1 they are sent as clear text and in SNMPv2c they are encrypted.
- DIn SNMPv1 they are sent as clear text and in SNMPv2c they are sent as part of an encrypted session.
How the community answered
(46 responses)- A7% (3)
- B89% (41)
- C2% (1)
- D2% (1)
Why each option
SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c both transmit community strings as unencrypted clear text, making them vulnerable to interception. Only SNMPv3 introduced authentication and encryption.
Neither SNMPv1 nor SNMPv2c supports encryption of any kind - encryption was not introduced until SNMPv3.
Both SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c were designed without encryption, and community strings function as plaintext passwords transmitted in every SNMP message. This is a well-known architectural limitation of both protocol versions, and it is precisely why SNMPv3 was introduced with support for authentication (MD5/SHA) and encryption (DES/AES). Neither SNMPv1 nor SNMPv2c has any mechanism to encrypt community strings in transit.
SNMPv2c retained the same cleartext community string model as SNMPv1 and did not add encryption.
SNMPv2c does not support encrypted sessions - it improved on SNMPv1 with better error handling and bulk operations but made no security enhancements to community string transmission.
Concept tested: SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c community string security model
Source: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/snmp/configuration/xe-16/snmp-xe-16-book/nm-snmp-cfg-snmp-support.html
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