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4.2.1 Ensure NIS client is not installed

Information

The Network Information Service (NIS), formerly known as Yellow Pages, is a client-server directory service protocol used to distribute system configuration files. The NIS client was used to bind a machine to an NIS server and receive the distributed configuration files.

The NIS service is inherently an insecure system that has been vulnerable to DOS attacks, buffer overflows and has poor authentication for querying NIS maps. NIS generally has been replaced by such protocols as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). It is recommended that the service be removed.

Solution

Ensure that all of the NIS daemons are inactive:

stopsrc -g yp

De-install the NIS client software:

installp -u bos.net.nis.client

Impact:

If NIS is used for authentication, then removal of the fileset may prevent users from accessing the system. In this case, the package should remain installed but it is strongly recommended that you review options for moving to a more secure technology such as LDAP

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/22751

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: b82996b6e5b175422247bd9b12cced38606dddf3687988376b5a0555e3ed3450