Title

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

Discussion

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.

Check Content

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

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.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-204593r991589_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-204593

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

Expert Comments

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