OL 9 SSHD must accept public key authentication.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-271721 | SRG-OS-000105-GPOS-00052 | OL09-00-002359 | SV-271721r1091875_rule | 2026-02-17 | 1 |
Description
Without the use of multifactor authentication, the ease of access to privileged functions is greatly increased. Multifactor authentication requires using two or more factors to achieve authentication. A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user. A DOD CAC with DOD-approved PKI is an example of multifactor authentication.
Satisfies: SRG-OS-000105-GPOS-00052, SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053, SRG-OS-000107-GPOS-00054, SRG-OS-000108-GPOS-00055
ℹ️ Check
Verify that OL 9 SSH daemon accepts public key encryption with the following command:
$ sudo grep -i PubkeyAuthentication /etc/ssh/sshd_config
PubkeyAuthentication yes
If "PubkeyAuthentication" is set to no, the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure OL 9 to accept public key authentication by adding or modifying the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config".
PubkeyAuthentication yes
Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:
$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service