Zeroizing the System

Your device is not considered a valid FIPS cryptographic module until all critical security parameters (CSPs) have been entered—or reentered—while the device is in FIPS mode.

For FIPS 140-3 compliance, you must zeroize the system to remove sensitive information before disabling FIPS mode on the device.

As Security Administrator, you run the request system zeroize command to remove all user-created files from a device and replace the user data with zeros. This command completely erases all configuration information on the Routing Engines, including all rollback configuration files and plain-text passwords, secrets, and private keys for SSH, local encryption, and local authentication.

To zeroize your device:

CAUTION:

Perform system zeroization with care. After the zeroization process is complete, no data is left on the Routing Engine. The device is returned to the factory default state, without any configured users or configuration files.

  1. From the CLI, enter
  2. To initiate the zeroization process, type yes at the prompt:

    The entire operation can take considerable time depending on the size of the media, but all critical security parameters (CSPs) are removed within a few seconds. The physical environment must remain secure until the zeroization process is complete.

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