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V-258874

CAT II (Medium)

The Photon operating system must configure Secure Shell (SSH) to disallow Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSSAPI) authentication.

Rule ID

SV-258874r933683_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R1

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

GSSAPI authentication is used to provide additional authentication mechanisms to applications. Allowing GSSAPI authentication through Secure Shell (SSH) exposes the system's GSSAPI to remote hosts, increasing the attack surface of the system.

Check Content

At the command line, run the following command to verify the running configuration of sshd:

# sshd -T|&grep -i GSSAPIAuthentication

Example result:

gssapiauthentication no

If "GSSAPIAuthentication" is not set to "no", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Navigate to and open:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Ensure the "GSSAPIAuthentication" line is uncommented and set to the following:

GSSAPIAuthentication no

At the command line, run the following command:

# systemctl restart sshd.service