The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using known hosts authentication.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using known hosts authentication.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-204593	RHEL-07-040380	SV-204593r505924_rule		Medium

Description
Configuring this setting for the SSH daemon provides additional assurance that remote logon via SSH will require a password, even in the event of misconfiguration elsewhere.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-03

Details

Check Text ( C-4717r88971_chk )
Verify the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using known hosts authentication. To determine how the SSH daemon's "IgnoreUserKnownHosts" option is set, run the following command: # grep -i IgnoreUserKnownHosts /etc/ssh/sshd_config IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes If the value is returned as "no", the returned line is commented out, or no output is returned, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-4717r88972_fix)
Configure the SSH daemon to not allow authentication using known hosts authentication. Add the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config", or uncomment the line and set the value to "yes": IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes The SSH service must be restarted for changes to take effect.