The AIX SSH daemon must not allow RhostsRSAAuthentication.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-215305 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00229 | AIX7-00-002123 | SV-215305r991591_rule | 2026-02-06 | 3 |
Description
If SSH permits rhosts RSA authentication, a user may be able to log in based on the keys of the host originating the request and not any user-specific authentication.
ℹ️ Check
Check the SSH daemon configuration for the "RhostsRSAAuthentication" setting by running:
# grep -i RhostsRSAAuthentication /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep -v '^#'
The above command should yield the following output:
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
If the setting is present and set to "yes", this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Edit the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config file", add the following line, and save the change:
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
Restart the SSH daemon:
# stopsrc -s sshd
# startsrc -s sshd