5.1.13 Ensure sshd HostbasedAuthentication is disabled

Information

The HostbasedAuthentication parameter specifies if authentication is allowed through trusted hosts via the user of .rhosts, or /etc/hosts.equiv, along with successful public key client host authentication.

Even though the .rhosts files are ineffective if support is disabled in /etc/pam.conf, disabling the ability to use .rhosts files in SSH provides an additional layer of protection.

Solution

Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file to set the HostbasedAuthentication parameter to no above any Include and Match entries as follows:

HostbasedAuthentication no

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/27890

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT, IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|CM-6b., 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: de230ab2ee742305f4127c4c52d96654d114dd0ecc5a694cc9edb0f3db244951