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300-410 Practice Question: When troubleshooting SNMPv3 authentication…

When troubleshooting SNMPv3 authentication failures, which default HMAC algorithm is used if the user is configured with "auth md5"?

⚠ Common exam trap

Cisco often tests the misconception that 'auth md5' uses raw MD5 directly, when in fact SNMPv3 always wraps the hash in an HMAC construction, and the '-96' suffix indicates the truncated output length.

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.

Correct answer & explanation

✓

HMAC-MD5-96

When a user is configured with 'auth md5' in SNMPv3, the default HMAC algorithm used is HMAC-MD5-96. This is defined in RFC 3414, which specifies that the authentication protocol 'MD5' actually refers to HMAC-MD5-96, not raw MD5. The HMAC construction provides keyed hashing for message integrity and authentication, and the '-96' indicates that the output is truncated to 96 bits (12 bytes).

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • ✗

    HMAC-SHA-96

    Why it's wrong here

    HMAC-SHA-96 is used when SHA is configured, not MD5.

  • ✓

    HMAC-MD5-96

    Why this is correct

    RFC 3414 defines HMAC-MD5-96 as the authentication protocol for usmHMACMD5AuthProtocol.

  • ✗

    HMAC-SHA-256

    Why it's wrong here

    HMAC-SHA-256 is not a standard SNMPv3 authentication protocol; only MD5 and SHA (96-bit) are defined in the base RFC.

  • ✗

    No HMAC is used; MD5 is used directly.

    Why it's wrong here

    SNMPv3 always uses HMAC for authentication, not raw MD5.

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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security

Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva

This 300-410 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 300-410 exam.