RHEL 9 SSHD must accept public key authentication.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-257983	SRG-OS-000105-GPOS-00052	RHEL-09-255035	SV-257983r1045024_rule	2025-02-27	2

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 common access card (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

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 common access card (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
Note: If the system administrator demonstrates the use of an approved alternate multifactor authentication method, this requirement is Not Applicable. Verify that RHEL 9 SSH daemon accepts public key encryption 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*pubkeyauthentication' PubkeyAuthentication yes If "PubkeyAuthentication" is set to no, the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Note: If the system administrator demonstrates the use of an approved alternate multifactor authentication method, this requirement is Not Applicable. Verify that RHEL 9 SSH daemon accepts public key encryption 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*pubkeyauthentication' PubkeyAuthentication yes If "PubkeyAuthentication" is set to no, the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
To configure the system, add or modify the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" or in a file in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d". PubkeyAuthentication yes Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect: $ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service