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Configuring and Monitoring Port Security
MAC Lockdown
Deploying MAC Lockdown
When you deploy MAC Lockdown you need to consider how you use it within
your network topology to ensure security. In some cases where you are using
techniques such as “meshing” or Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) to speed up
network performance by providing multiple paths for devices, using MAC
Lockdown either will not work or else it defeats the purpose of having multiple
data paths.
The purpose of using MAC Lockdown is to prevent a malicious user from
“hijacking” an approved MAC address so they can steal data traffic being sent
to that address.
As we have seen, MAC Lockdown can help prevent this type of hijacking by
making sure that all traffic to a specific MAC address goes only to the proper
port on a switch which is supposed to be connected to the real device bearing
that MAC address.
However, you can run into trouble if you incorrectly try to deploy MAC
Lockdown in a network that uses multiple path technology, like Spanning Tree
or “mesh networks.”
Let’s examine a good use of MAC Lockdown within a network to ensure
security first.
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