The telnet daemon must not be running.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-38589	RHEL-06-000211	SV-50390r2_rule		High

Description

The telnet protocol uses unencrypted network communication, which means that data from the login session, including passwords and all other information transmitted during the session, can be stolen by eavesdroppers on the network. The telnet protocol is also subject to man-in-the-middle attacks. Mitigation: If an enabled telnet daemon is configured to only allow encrypted sessions, such as with Kerberos or the use of encrypted network tunnels, the risk of exposing sensitive information is mitigated.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2016-12-16

Details

Check Text ( C-46147r3_chk )

To check that the "telnet" service is disabled in system boot configuration, run the following command: # chkconfig "telnet" --list Output should indicate the "telnet" service has either not been installed, or has been disabled, as shown in the example below: # chkconfig "telnet" --list telnet off OR error reading information on service telnet: No such file or directory If the service is running, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-43537r1_fix)
The "telnet" service can be disabled with the following command: # chkconfig telnet off