RHEL 9 SSHD must accept public key authentication.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-257983	RHEL-09-255035	SV-257983r943032_rule		Medium

Description
Without the use of multifactor authentication, the ease of access to privileged functions is greatly increased. Multifactor authentication requires using two or more factors to achieve authentication. A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user. A DOD CAC with DOD-approved PKI is an example of multifactor authentication. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000105-GPOS-00052, SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053, SRG-OS-000107-GPOS-00054, SRG-OS-000108-GPOS-00055

Description

Without the use of multifactor authentication, the ease of access to privileged functions is greatly increased. Multifactor authentication requires using two or more factors to achieve authentication. A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user. A DOD CAC with DOD-approved PKI is an example of multifactor authentication. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000105-GPOS-00052, SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053, SRG-OS-000107-GPOS-00054, SRG-OS-000108-GPOS-00055

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-12-01

Details

Check Text ( C-61724r943031_chk )
Verify that RHEL 9 SSH daemon accepts public key encryption with the following command: $ sudo grep -ir PubkeyAuthentication /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/* PubkeyAuthentication yes If "PubkeyAuthentication" is set to no, the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61648r925935_fix)
To configure the system add or modify the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config". PubkeyAuthentication yes Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect: $ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service