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V-269420

CAT I (High)

AlmaLinux OS 9 must enable the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) interface for SSHD.

Rule ID

SV-269420r1050303_rule

STIG

Cloud Linux AlmaLinux OS 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R6

CCIs

CCI-000877

Discussion

When UsePAM is set to "yes", PAM runs through account and session types properly. This is important when restricted access to services based off of IP, time, or other factors of the account is needed. Additionally, this ensures users can inherit certain environment variables on login or disallow access to the server.

Check Content

Verify the AlmaLinux OS 9 SSHD is configured to allow for the UsePAM interface with the following command:

$ sshd -T | grep usepam

usepam yes

If the "UsePAM" keyword is set to "no", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the SSH daemon to use PAM.

Add the following line to "/etc/ssh/sshd_config", or uncomment the line and set the value to "yes":

UsePAM yes

Alternatively, add the setting to an include file if the line "Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf" is found at the top of the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file:

$ cat << EOF | tee /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/pam.conf
UsePAM yes
EOF

Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:

$ systemctl restart sshd.service