V-279351

Discussion

The DOD standard for authentication is DOD-approved PKI certificates. PKI certificate-based authentication is performed by requiring the certificate holder to cryptographically prove possession of the corresponding private key. If the private key is stolen, an attacker can use the private key(s) to impersonate the certificate holder. In cases where the DBMS-stored private keys are used to authenticate the DBMS to the system's clients, loss of the corresponding private keys would allow an attacker to successfully perform undetected man in the middle attacks against the DBMS system and its clients. Both the holder of a digital certificate and the issuing authority must take careful measures to protect the corresponding private key. Private keys should always be generated and protected in FIPS 140-2 or 140-3 validated cryptographic modules. All access to the private key(s) of the DBMS must be restricted to authorized and authenticated users. If unauthorized users have access to one or more of the DBMS's private keys, an attacker could gain access to the key(s) and use them to impersonate the database on the network or otherwise perform unauthorized actions.

Check Content

In the MongoDB database configuration file (default location /etc/mongod.conf), review the following parameters:

net:
   tls:
      mode: requireTLS
      certificateKeyFile: /etc/ssl/mongodb.pem
      CAFile: /etc/ssl/mongodbca.pem

Verify ownership, group ownership, and permissions for the MongoDB config file (default /etc/mongod.conf), the certificateKeyFile (default /etc/ssl/mongodb.pem), and the CAFile (default /etc/ssl/mongodbca.pem).

For each file, run following command and review its output:

ls -al <filepath>

Example output:
-rw------- 1 mongod mongod 566 Apr 26 20:20 <filepath>

If the user owner is not "mongod", this is a finding.

If the group owner is not "mongod", this is a finding.

If the file is more permissive than "600", this is a finding.