OL 9 SSH daemon must not allow known hosts authentication.

Severity
Group ID
Group Title
Version
Rule ID
Date
STIG Version
mediumV-271712SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227OL09-00-002349SV-271712r1091848_rule2025-05-081
Description
Configuring the IgnoreUserKnownHosts setting for the SSH daemon provides additional assurance that remote login via SSH will require a password, even in the event of misconfiguration elsewhere.
ℹ️ Check
Verify that OL 9 SSH daemon does not allow known hosts authentication with the following command: $ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*ignoreuserknownhosts' IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes If the value is returned as "no", the returned line is commented out, or no output is returned, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure the SSH daemon to not allow known hosts authentication. Add the following line to "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" or to a file in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d" or uncomment the line and set the value to "yes": IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes The SSH service must be restarted for changes to take effect: $ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service