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V-234825

CAT II (Medium)

The SUSE operating system must employ FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication (login.defs).

Rule ID

SV-234825r971535_rule

STIG

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R7

CCIs

None

Discussion

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied on to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoD data may be compromised. SUSE operating systems using 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 use 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 the SUSE operating system requires that the "ENCRYPT_METHOD" value in "/etc/login.defs" is set to "SHA512".

Check the value of "ENCRYPT_METHOD" value in "/etc/login.defs" with the following command:

> grep "^ENCRYPT_METHOD " /etc/login.defs

ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512

If "ENCRYPT_METHOD" is not set to "SHA512", if any values other that "SHA512" are configured, or if no output is produced, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the SUSE operating system to require "ENCRYPT_METHOD" of "SHA512".

Edit the "/etc/login.defs" file with the following line:

ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512