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The SSH daemon must use privilege separation.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-72265 RHEL-07-040460 SV-86889r2_rule Medium
Description
SSH daemon privilege separation causes the SSH process to drop root privileges when not needed, which would decrease the impact of software vulnerabilities in the unprivileged section.
STIG Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2017-07-08

Details

Check Text ( C-72499r2_chk )
Verify the SSH daemon performs privilege separation.

Check that the SSH daemon performs privilege separation with the following command:

# grep -i usepriv /etc/ssh/sshd_config

UsePrivilegeSeparation sandbox

If the "UsePrivilegeSeparation" keyword is set to "no", is missing, or the retuned line is commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-78619r2_fix)
Uncomment the "UsePrivilegeSeparation" keyword in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" (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) and set the value to "sandbox" or "yes":

UsePrivilegeSeparation sandbox

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