1.449 RHEL-09-671025

Information

RHEL 9 pam_unix.so module must be configured in the password-auth file to use a FIPS 140-3 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication.

GROUP ID: V-258233
RULE ID: SV-258233r1015136

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and; therefore, cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DOD data may be compromised.

RHEL 9 systems utilizing encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules.

FIPS 140-3 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules utilize authentication that meets DOD requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general-purpose computing system.

Solution

Configure RHEL 9 to use a FIPS 140-3 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication.

Edit/modify the following line in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file to include the sha512 option for pam_unix.so:

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/22008

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5, 800-53|IA-5(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000196, CCI|CCI-004062, Rule-ID|SV-258233r1015136_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-671025, Vuln-ID|V-258233

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: c6029c7e64b42d1ca9922886d07cee8d3d209a61a86a9d6d0315e7c96f597042