| About SNMP: used to manage network resources and check their status vulnerable to eavesdropping and spoofed information used by hackers to gain information about the network SNMP uses a community string password sent in clear text for authentication. Community strings are often spoofed, because the community string default is "public" and is not often changed. SNMP should be blocked from entering or leaving networks. SNMPv1 has authentication, but the password is still sent in the clear. SNMPv2 sends an MD5 hash for authentication, and is capable of using Data Encryption Standard (DES) for encrypting messages.