Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must not allow unattended or automatic login via SSH.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | V-270717 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00229 | UBTU-24-300031 | SV-270717r1067177_rule | 2026-02-06 | 1 |
Description
Failure to restrict system access to authenticated users negatively impacts Ubuntu 24.04 LTS security.
ℹ️ Check
Verify unattended or automatic login via SSH is disabled with the following command:
$ egrep -r '(Permit(.*?)(Passwords|Environment))' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
PermitEmptyPasswords no
PermitUserEnvironment no
If the "PermitEmptyPasswords" or "PermitUserEnvironment" keywords are set to a value other than "no", are commented out, are both missing, or conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to allow the SSH daemon to not allow unattended or automatic login to the system.
Add or edit 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