Cisco IOS Security vs. Metasploit

Cisco IOS Security is great when there isn't enough budget to acquire advanced security solutions like ISE. We can use the Cisco IOS security features to secure our network as much as we can, we can do authentication using Radius, Port Security, and access lists to secure our traffic while eliminating the attacker from accessing our network.

Incentivized

In security of information it's vital to think like a hacker and it's important to know the tools they use for attacks. So this software gives you the exploits that are already in the wild and to the access of everyone. That's very dangerous so you have to be aware of it.

Incentivized

• QoS. Cisco Quality of Service is top notch and handles prioritization of voice and video without issue.
• Ease of implementation and configuration. Once you have a device configured, it is easy to use that configuration as a template for the rest. Export your config, update, the IP Address and Name at a minimum, then deploy to the next device.
• Longevity! Sometimes it can be difficult to upsell a current Cisco client due to aging hardware. I have gone into a network that has 12 year old switches still running strong. I have only seen this with the Cisco brand. At that point, the upsell is the newer features and not the age of the device.

Incentivized

• Scanning our network for new or existing vulnerable systems.
• Automation of manual tests and exploits to allow what used to be days of effort to be squeezed into hours.
• Metasploit has become an integral part in our validation of new systems before their inclusion in our production network.

Incentivized

• Needs many lines to configure a detailed access list.
• No seamless integration between Cisco IOS and LDAP for authentication and need something in middle like Radius.

Incentivized

• If Metasploit could support payloads written in languages other than Ruby, that would be amazing and could help draw in a larger set of contributors.

Incentivized

Cisco has the biggest and most trustful partner network in the world. Besides that, you can buy a service contract with the hardware and use the Cisco TAC to help to solve problems. That’s a key differential for Cisco comparing to other vendors.

Incentivized

We don't use it.

Incentivized

IOS Security is a bonus feature when you purchase Cisco devices. It is great to have a vendor provide equipment to go above and beyond the minimal needs for business operation. Having security at the downstream edge of our organization provides a sense of ease from potential attacks.

Incentivized

Acunetix vulnerability scanner, Netsparker, SQLMap

Incentivized

• Cisco iOS security helped our business deploy a relatively safe solution for a small amount of money.
• If you don’t have enough budget to invest in a robust and expensive firewall solution, you can safely use Cisco iOS security to protect your branch or remote office without compromise your network.
• Because Cisco iOS security uses a simple command-line based interface, you can deploy standardized scripts and keep the operational costs low.

Incentivized

• We have been able to weed out false positives with a more manual vetting of scanned vulnerabilities.
• Our teams have become more well versed in penetration testing with Metasploit to understand the vulnerabilities potentially present.

Incentivized