Title

The .rhosts file must not be supported in PAM. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The .rhosts files are used to specify a list of hosts that are permitted remote access to a particular account without authenticating. The use of such a mechanism defeats strong identification and authentication requirements.

Check Content

Check the PAM configuration for rhosts_auth. Procedure: # grep rhosts_auth /etc/pam.conf If a rhosts_auth entry is found, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Edit /etc/pam.conf and remove the reference(s) to the rhosts_auth module.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-12490r2_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-11989

Group Title: GEN002100

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.