How to lock an IP address to a MAC address

networking

I know the title is not the best possible title.

Currently, every server on my network may use any static IP by simply configuring it in the OS level. What I'm trying to accomplish is allowing a specific IP address only be used with a specific MAC address.

So for example, I should be able to set 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 can only be used by the MAC address 00:fe:94:82:05:32.

If another NIC, with a different MAC address, let's say 00:fe:94:82:05:31, wants access to use 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2, something should deny its request. What would that something be? I assume it should be the router or a level 3 switch. If so, what feature should I search for in specs of routers to buy?

Best Answer

You would need an intelligent switch to do this on the network. I don't know if there is a VM management tool that can prevent users from adding another or changing IP's on their guest.

In Cisco-land you're looking for port-security to keep someone on a different port from spoofing the mac, and IP source guard (IPSG) to inspect the mac/IP combination and/or dynamic arp inspection (DAI) to prevent ARP spoofing. IPSG and DAI depend on DHCP snooping or a user-configured table, so it can add quite the overhead to your operation.

Other vendors(Juniper/Extreme/Force10/etc...) can do the same security features but the names might differ from what I mentioned. All vendors will have their own hardware/software/licensing requirements that you will need to work out with your vendor/VAR.

Also, there are complications to configuring this type of security and a misconfiguration can be really hard to troubleshoot, and depending on your network it might not be possible to provide this level of security.