RHEL 10 must be configured to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication by ensuring that the pam_unix.so module is configured in the "system-auth" file.

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied on to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoW data may be compromised.

RHEL 10 systems using encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules.

FIPS 140-3 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules use authentication that meets DoW requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general-purpose computing system.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041, SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061

Verify RHEL 10 is configured to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" via the pam_unix.so module with the following command:

$ sudo grep "^password.*pam_unix.so.*sha512" /etc/pam.d/system-auth password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512

If "sha512" is missing, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

Configure RHEL 10 to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" via the "pam_unix.so" module.

Edit/modify the following line in the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file to include the sha512 option for pam_unix.so:

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512