The DBMS must use NSA-approved cryptography to protect classified information in accordance with the requirements of the data owner.

Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The application must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards approved by the federal government since this provides assurance they have been tested and validated.

It is the responsibility of the data owner to assess the cryptography requirements in light of applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, and standards.

NSA-approved cryptography for classified networks is hardware based. This requirement addresses the compatibility of a DBMS with the encryption devices.

If the EDB Postgres Advanced Server is deployed in an unclassified environment, this is not applicable.

If PostgreSQL is not using NSA-approved cryptography to protect classified information in accordance with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, and standards, this is a finding.

To check if PostgreSQL is configured to use SSL, as the "enterprisedb" operating system user, run the following:

> psql edb -c "SHOW ssl"

If Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is set to "off", this is a finding (Refer to below).

Consult network administration staff to determine whether the server is protected by NSA-approved encrypting devices. If not, then this a finding.

As the "enterprisedb" operating system user, run the following to set the ssl parameter to "on":

> psql edb -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET ssl = 'on'"

Next, reload the parameter file:

psql edb -c "SELECT pg_reload_conf()"

Now confirm the new value:

psql edb -c "SHOW ssl"