FIPS Overview

A RUCKUS device in Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) mode is compliant with the standards established by the United States government and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Note: Not all software releases support FIPS. Refer to the Release notes for the software you are running to see if it supports FIPS.

The FIPS Publication 140-3 is a technical standard and worldwide de-facto standard for the implementation of cryptographic modules. The FIPS Publication 140-3 contains security standards developed by the United States government and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for use by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors. Due to their importance within the security industry, these standards form a baseline for many security requirements.

In FIPS mode, the network processing occurs in the kernel and in privileged daemons.

Note: To determine if the device and current software version are FIPS-certified, refer to http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/validation.html.

You can configure the device to run in FIPS mode to ensure that the device is operating according to the standards stated in FIPS Publication 140-3.

A device is FIPS 140-3-compliant when the following requirements have been met:

  • The device software is placed in FIPS mode with the FIPS security policy applied.

  • Tamper-evident security seals labels are applied to the device according to the instructions included in the tamper-resistant accessory kit. The accessory kit must be purchased separately.
  • The device software is placed in FIPS mode with the FIPS security policy applied.
Note: Tamper-evident security seals must be applied to the product. For details on how to place the tamper-evident security seals, refer to the platform-specific FIPS Security Seal Procedures document available on MyBrocade.
Reference is specific to Brocade and must be changed for Ruckus to point to a chapter in this guide.

For a list of physical ports and interfaces for each device, refer to the Security Policy.

Parent topic: Federal Information Processing Standards