V-253911

Discussion

Unapproved mechanisms used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not validated and therefore, cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DOD data may be compromised. Network devices utilizing encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules. FIPS 140-2/140-3 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules utilize authentication that meets DOD requirements. However, authentication algorithms must configure security processes to use only FIPS-validated and NIST-recommended authentication algorithms.

Check Content

Verify the password format, and that SSH uses FIPS-validated algorithms and a random number generator (RNG) as shown in the following example configuration:

user@host> show configuration system
login {
    password {
        :
        format <sha256|sha-512>;
    }
}
services {
    ssh {
        :
        ciphers [ aes256-ctr aes256-cbc];
        macs [ hmac-sha2-512 hmac-sha2-256 ];
        key-exchange [ ecdh-sha2-nistp521 ecdh-sha2-nistp384 ecdh-sha2-nistp256 ];
        :
    }
}
rng {
    hmac-drbg;
}

If the network device is not configured to use FIPS 140-2/140-3-validated authentication algorithms, this is a finding.