The AIX SSH daemon must be configured to not use host-based authentication.

Severity
Group ID
Group Title
Version
Rule ID
Date
STIG Version
mediumV-215304SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00229AIX7-00-002122SV-215304r991591_rule2026-02-063

Description

SSH trust relationships mean a compromise on one host can allow an attacker to move trivially to other hosts.

ℹ️ Check

Check the SSH daemon configuration for allowed host-based authentication using command: # grep -i HostbasedAuthentication /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep -v '^#' HostbasedAuthentication no If no lines are returned, or the returned "HostbasedAuthentication" directive contains "yes", this is a finding.

✔️ Fix

Edit "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" and add or update the "HostbasedAuthentication" line as: HostbasedAuthentication no Save the change and restart ssh daemon: # stopsrc -s sshd # startsrc -s sshd