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V-252917

CAT II (Medium)

The TOSS pam_unix.so module must be configured in the password-auth file to use a FIPS 140-2-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication.

Rule ID

SV-252917r971535_rule

STIG

Tri-Lab Operating System Stack (TOSS) 4 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R5

CCIs

CCI-000803

Discussion

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoD data may be compromised. TOSS systems utilizing encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules. FIPS 140-2 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules utilize authentication that meets DoD requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general-purpose computing system.

Check Content

Verify that the pam_unix.so module is configured to use sha512.

Check that the pam_unix.so module is configured to use sha512 in /etc/pam.d/password-auth with the following command:

$ sudo grep password /etc/pam.d/password-auth | grep pam_unix

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512

If "sha512" is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure TOSS to use a FIPS 140-2-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication.

Edit and/or modify the following line in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file to include the sha512 option for pam_unix.so:

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512