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SLEM-05-212010 - SLEM 5 with a basic input/output system (BIOS) must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes.

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This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

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Information

To mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information by entities that have been issued certificates by DOD-approved PKIs, all DOD systems (e.g., web servers and web portals) must be properly configured to incorporate access control methods that do not rely solely on the possession of a certificate for access. Successful authentication must not automatically give an entity access to an asset or security boundary. Authorization procedures and controls must be implemented to ensure each authenticated entity also has a validated and current authorization. Authorization is the process of determining whether an entity, once authenticated, is permitted to access a specific asset. Information systems use access control policies and enforcement mechanisms to implement this requirement.

Access control policies include identity-based policies, role-based policies, and attribute-based policies. Access enforcement mechanisms include access control lists, access control matrices, and cryptography. These policies and mechanisms must be employed by the application to control access between users (or processes acting on behalf of users) and objects (e.g., devices, files, records, processes, programs, and domains) in the information system.

Solution

Note: If the system does not use a BIOS, this requirement is not applicable.

Configure SLEM 5 to encrypt the boot password.

Generate an encrypted GRUB bootloader password for root with the following command:

 > grub2-mkpasswd-pbkdf2
 Enter Password:
 Reenter Password:
 PBKDF2 hash of your password is grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.03255F190F0E2F7B4F0D1C3216012309162F022A7A636771

Using the hash from the output, modify the "/etc/grub.d/40_custom" file and add the following two lines to add a boot password for the root entry:

 set superusers="root"
 password_pbkdf2 root grub.pbkdf2.sha512.03255F190F0E2F7B4F0D1C3216012309162F022A7A636771

Generate an updated "grub.conf" file with the new password using the following commands:

 > sudo grub2-mkconfig --output=/tmp/grub2.cfg

 > sudo mv /tmp/grub2.cfg /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_SLEM_5_V1R3_STIG.zip

Item Details

References: CAT|I, CCI|CCI-000213, Rule-ID|SV-261267r1137691_rule, STIG-ID|SLEM-05-212010, Vuln-ID|V-261267

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: fe42c89d8c18d11627c060544cb057f1766c4a23bd9c28689939189958261c43