2.6 Ensure that the --peer-auto-tls argument is not set to true

Information

Do not use automatically generated self-signed certificates for TLS connections between peers.

Rationale:

etcd is a highly-available key value store used by Kubernetes deployments for persistent storage of all of its REST API objects. These objects are sensitive in nature and should be accessible only by authenticated etcd peers in the etcd cluster. Hence, do not use self-signed certificates for authentication.

Impact:

All peers attempting to communicate with the etcd server require a valid client certificate for authentication.

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

This setting is managed by the cluster etcd operator. No remediation required.

Default Value:

OpenShift does not use the --peer-auto-tls argument. By default, OpenShift configures etcd to use a cluster CA which creates self-signed certificates. These internal self-signing CAs enable automation because the key is known to the cluster. The certificates generated by each CA are used to identify a particular OpenShift platform component to another OpenShift platform component. The OpenShift CAs are managed by the cluster and are only used within the cluster. This means that

Each cluster CA can only issue certificates for its own purpose within its own cluster.

CAs for one OpenShift cluster cannot influence CAs for a different OpenShift cluster, thus avoiding cross-cluster interference.

Cluster CAs cannot be influenced by an external CA that the cluster does not control.

This configuration cannot be changed.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/16094

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4

Plugin: OpenShift

Control ID: 9dd94b541a6110b9bd86e2270561830bd50cf3ef643829d69e0142fcdd32c602