SLES-15-010260 - The SUSE operating system must employ FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication (login.defs).

Information

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

SUSE 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 that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules use 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 the SUSE operating system to require 'ENCRYPT_METHOD' of 'SHA512'.

Edit the '/etc/login.defs' file with the following line:

ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_SLES_15_V1R12_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-7, CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000803, Rule-ID|SV-234825r622137_rule, STIG-ID|SLES-15-010260, Vuln-ID|V-234825

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 0ff2dc0ea8bc2e6dd407018c20e24c93a5a5f092515665420f0947f8acbd909c