OL07-00-040110 - The Oracle Linux 7 operating system must implement DoD-approved encryption to protect the confidentiality of SSH connections.

Information

Unapproved mechanisms for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified, and therefore cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, resulting in the compromise of DoD data.

Operating systems using encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules.

FIPS 140-2 is the current standard for validating 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.

The system will attempt to use the first cipher presented by the client that matches the server list. Listing the values 'strongest to weakest' is a method to ensure the use of the strongest cipher available to secure the SSH connection.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000033-GPOS-00014, SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061, SRG-OS-000125-GPOS-00065, SRG-OS-000250-GPOS-00093, SRG-OS-000393-GPOS-00173,SRG-OS-000394-GPOS-00174

Solution

Configure SSH to use FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic algorithms.

Add the following line (or modify the line to have the required value) to the '/etc/ssh/sshd_config' file (this file may be named differently or be in a different location if using a version of SSH that is provided by a third-party vendor).

Ciphers aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr

The SSH service must be restarted for changes to take effect.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Linux_7_V2R9_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL, IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION, MAINTENANCE

References: 800-53|AC-17(2), 800-53|IA-7, 800-53|MA-4(6), 800-53|MA-4c., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000068, CCI|CCI-000803, CCI|CCI-000877, CCI|CCI-002890, CCI|CCI-003123, Rule-ID|SV-221840r853717_rule, STIG-ID|OL07-00-040110, STIG-Legacy|SV-108523, STIG-Legacy|V-99419, Vuln-ID|V-221840

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 48f18883889addcabf21a0b4962f301e22eba0f4d4d446a288c497389e11661d