MG-SOFT SNMPv3 engine

Reference SNMPv3 implementation since 1998


MG-SOFT started implementing an SNMPv3 engine in early 1998, while SNMPv3 draft specifications were still emerging from the IETF SNMPv3 working group. MG-SOFT published the first public beta release of the SNMPv3 engine implementation in November 1998. In May 1999, when IETF published RFC 257x documents, MG-SOFT published a conformant release of the SNMPv3 engine implementation.

In December 2002, when IETF published RFC 341x documents and with that advanced SNMPv3 specification to the Internet Standard level (STD 62), MG-SOFT has already been shipping a conformant SNMPv3 implementation. In consequence, all other MG-SOFT's network management products are also compliant with the current SNMPv3 protocol standard.

By providing a conformant implementation of the SNMPv3 protocol standard (and the whole SNMPv3 network management product line) even before the standard has been officially published, MG-SOFT again proved its high tech excellency and commitment to serve even the most demanding customers.

Since November 1998, when MG-SOFT performed and successfully passed a number of interoperability tests with other SNMPv3 vendors and their SNMPv3 implementations, MG-SOFT has built a global reputation for trusted, conformant, high performance and highly reliable SNMPv3 implementation. MG-SOFT has tens of thousands of corporate, educational, governmental and individual users worldwide.

In March 2003 MG-SOFT extended the SNMPv3 engine so that the USM module supports also the CFB-AES-128 privacy protocol, as specified in RFC 3826.

Today, MG-SOFT's SNMPv3 engine is a mature and market-proven product that is widely used with MG-SOFT's SNMPv3 manager and agent products, as well as with numerous products developed by third parties, who have licensed MG-SOFT's SNMPv3 technology. Even more, MG-SOFT's SNMPv3 engine is considered a de-facto reference SNMPv3 protocol implementation for other SNMPv3 protocol implementers.



MG-SOFT SNMPv3 implementation


MG-SOFT has implemented an SNMP engine supporting SNMPv1, SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 protocols including the complete USM security model (HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA, CBC-DES). The MG-SOFT SNMPv3 engine conforms to the most recent SNMPv3 specification documents:
  • Introduction and Applicability Statements for Internet Standard Management Framework,
    (RFC 3410, Informational, December 2002).
  • An Architecture for Describing Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Management Frameworks,
    (RFC 3411, STD 62, December 2002).
  • Message Processing and Dispatching for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP),
    (RFC 3412, STD 62, December 2002).
  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Applications,
    (RFC 3413, STD 62, December 2002).
  • User-based Security Model (USM) for version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3),
    (RFC 3414, STD 62, December 2002).
  • View-based Access Control Model (VACM) for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP),
    (RFC 3415, STD 62, December 2002).
  • Version 2 of the Protocol Operations for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP),
    (RFC 3416, STD 62, December 2002).
  • Transport Mappings for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP),
    (RFC 3417, STD 62, December 2002).
  • Management Information Base (MIB) for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP),
    (RFC 3418 , STD 62, December 2002).
  • Coexistence between Version 1, Version 2, and Version 3 of the Internet-standard Network Management Framework,
    (RFC 3584, BCP 74, August 2003).
  • The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Cipher Algorithm in the SNMP User-based Security Model,
    (RFC 3826, Standards Track, June 2004).



Develop your own SNMPv3 network management applications


MG-SOFT's SNMPv3 engine is programmatically accessible through the MG-SOFT WinSNMP API. MG-SOFT WinSNMP Toolkit Version has been released and its evaluation version is available for downloading. The package, among others, contains a sample project file containing the full source code for building the MG-SOFT SNMPv3 Micro MIB Browser. The source code illustrates numerous aspects of SNMPv3 API extensions and can be used as a base for developing more sophisticated SNMPv3 management applications.

MG-SOFT SNMPv3 Micro MIB Browser
MG-SOFT SNMPv3 Micro MIB Browser
(available in MG-SOFT WinSNMP Toolkit)



SNMPv3 protocol interoperability and conformance


An agent based on MG-SOFT SNMPv3 engine is available on the Internet for interoperability testing (note that SNMP-SET operation is disabled for security reasons). The following are the supported groups of access parameters:

  1. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol without authentication and without privacy (security level: NoAuthNoPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: noAuthUser

  2. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol with HMAC-MD5 authentication protocol and without CBC-DES privacy protocol (security level: AuthNoPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: MD5_User
    Authentication Password: AuthPassword

  3. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol with HMAC-SHA authentication protocol and without CBC-DES privacy protocol (security level: AuthNoPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: SHA_User
    Authentication Password: AuthPassword

  4. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol with HMAC-MD5 authentication protocol and with CBC-DES privacy protocol (security level: AuthPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: MD5_DES_User
    Authentication Password: AuthPassword
    Privacy Password: PrivPassword

  5. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol with HMAC-SHA authentication protocol and with CBC-DES privacy protocol (security level: AuthPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: SHA_DES_User
    Authentication Password: AuthPassword
    Privacy Password: PrivPassword

  6. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol with HMAC-MD5 authentication protocol and with CFB-AES-128 privacy protocol (security level: AuthPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: MD5_AES128_User
    Authentication Password: AuthMD5-Password
    Privacy Password: PrivAES-Password
  7. Accessing the agent by using the SNMPv3 protocol with HMAC-SHA authentication protocol and with CFB-AES-128 privacy protocol (security level: AuthPriv):

    IP Address: 212.30.73.70
    SNMP Port: 161
    ContextName: public
    UserName: SHA_AES128_User
    Authentication Password: AuthSHA-Password
    Privacy Password: PrivAES-Password