6.1 Setup Client-cert Authentication

Information

Client-cert authentication requires that each client connecting to the server have a certificate to authenticate. This is generally regarded as stronger authentication than a password as it requires the client to have the certificate and not just know a password.

Certificate based authentication is more secure than password based authentication.

NOTE: Nessus has provided the target output to assist in reviewing the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

In the Connector element, set the clientAuth parameter to true and the certificateVerification to required

<-- Define a SSL Coyote HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443 -->

<Connector
port="8443" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="75"
enableLookups="true" disableUploadTimeout="true"
acceptCount="100" debug="0" scheme="https" secure="true";
clientAuth="true" sslProtocol="TLS"/>
...
<Connector ...>
<SSLHostConfig
certificateVerification="required"
/>

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/15137

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|16.4

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: f1dd25fda69bbf05bc85568db8be8d50341e9100ee2c8c8064d177b222b426f8