Implementing Cisco Networking Solutions

Control plane security

Control plane constitutes the brain of the network device, and controls the forwarding plane. While an attack on the data plane is transient and can bring down a particular host or a port, any attack on the control plane can bring down the entire network node or even the complete network. The attacks on the control plane are more pronounced than the data plane attacks.

The control plane is secured using a variety of IOS features and design techniques, as discussed in the following sections.