4.110 - A FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic algorithm must be used for SSH communications.

Information

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoD data may be compromised.

Operating systems utilizing 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 utilize authentication that meets DoD requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general purpose computing system.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000033-GPOS-00014, SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061, SRG-OS-000125-GPOS-00065, SRG-OS-000250-GPOS-00093, SRG-OS-000393-GPOS-00173

Solution

Configure SSH to use FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic algorithms.

Add the following line (or modify the line to have the required value) to the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file (this file may be named differently or be in a different location if using a version of SSH that is provided by a third-party vendor).

Ciphers aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr

The SSH service must be restarted for changes to take effect.

See Also

https://docs.fedoraproject.org/f28/system-administrators-guide/index.html

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION

References: 800-53|SC-13

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 47639f4fff6594e8556bc5bc1fd35021057b486881121788e58bcc0a35b19761