AIX must turn on SSH daemon privilege separation.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-215297 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | AIX7-00-002114 | SV-215297r991589_rule | 2026-02-06 | 3 |
Description
SSH daemon privilege separation causes the SSH process to drop root privileges when not needed, which would decrease the impact of software vulnerabilities in the unprivileged section.
ℹ️ Check
Check the SSH daemon configuration for the "UsePrivilegeSeparation" setting using command:
# grep -i UsePrivilegeSeparation /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep -v '^#'
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes
If the setting is not present or the setting is "no", this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Edit the "/etc/sshd/sshd_config" file and add the following line:
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes
Restart the SSH daemon:
# stopsrc -s sshd
# startsrc -s sshd