The F5 BIG-IP appliance must be configured to prevent the installation of patches, service packs, or application components without verification the software component has been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization.

Changes to any software components can have significant effects on the overall security of the network device. Verifying software components have been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization ensures the software has not been tampered with and has been provided by a trusted vendor.

Accordingly, patches, service packs, or application components must be signed with a certificate recognized and approved by the organization.

Verifying the authenticity of the software prior to installation validates the integrity of the patch or upgrade received from a vendor. This ensures the software has not been tampered with and has been provided by a trusted vendor. Self-signed certificates are disallowed by this requirement. The device must not have to verify the software again. This requirement does not mandate DoW certificates for this purpose; however, the certificate used to verify the software must be from an approved certificate authority (CA).

From the BIG-IP console, type the following command:

tmsh list /sys db liveinstall.checksig value

Note: This must return a value of "enable".

If the db variable is not set to "enable", this is a finding.

From the BIG-IP console, type the following commands:

tmsh modify /sys db liveinstall.checksig value "enable" tmsh save sys config