GEN006000 - The system must not have a public Instant Messaging (IM) client installed - IM client installed.

Information

Public (IM) systems are not approved for use and may result in the unauthorized distribution of information. IM clients provide a way for a user to send a message to one or more other users in real time. Additional capabilities may include file transfer and support for distributed game playing. Communication between clients and associated directory services are managed through messaging servers. Commercial IM clients include AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger.

IM clients present a security issue when the clients route messages through public servers. The obvious implication is potentially sensitive information could be intercepted or altered in the course of transmission. This same issue is associated with the use of public e-mail servers. In order to reduce the potential for disclosure of sensitive Government information and to ensure the validity of official government information, IM clients connecting to public IM services will not be installed. Clients use to access internal or DoD-controlled IM services are permitted.

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

Solution

Uninstall the IM client from the system, or configure the client to only connect to DoD-approved IM services.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Linux_5_V2R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT, SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION

References: 800-53|CM-6b., 800-53|SC-15(2), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, CCI|CCI-001154, Rule-ID|SV-218635r603259_rule, STIG-ID|GEN006000, STIG-Legacy|SV-64137, STIG-Legacy|V-12024, Vuln-ID|V-218635

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: d2f6ee5e32f804be67be1280c7a486ba6eac0306230b3bfb1259459e125e6188