Ubuntu 22.04 LTS must not allow unattended or automatic login via SSH.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | V-260526 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00229 | UBTU-22-255025 | SV-260526r991591_rule | 2026-02-06 | 2 |
Description
Failure to restrict system access to authenticated users negatively impacts Ubuntu 22.04 LTS security.
ℹ️ Check
Verify that unattended or automatic login via SSH is disabled by using the following command:
$ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iEH '(permit(.*?)(passwords|environment))'
/etc/ssh/sshd_config:PermitEmptyPasswords no
/etc/ssh/sshd_config:PermitUserEnvironment no
If "PermitEmptyPasswords" and "PermitUserEnvironment" are not set to "no", are commented out, are missing, or conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure the SSH server to not allow unattended or automatic login to the system.
Add or modify the following lines in the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file:
PermitEmptyPasswords no
PermitUserEnvironment no
Restart the SSH daemon for the changes to take effect:
$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service