RHEL 9 SSH private host key files must have mode 0600 or less permissive.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-258000 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | RHEL-09-255120 | SV-258000r1208772_rule | 2026-05-20 | 2 |
Description
If an unauthorized user obtains the private SSH host key file, the host could be impersonated.
ℹ️ Check
Verify the SSH private host key files have a mode of "0600" or less permissive with the following command:
$ stat -c "%a %n" /etc/ssh/*_key
600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
If any private host key file has a mode more permissive than "0600", this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure the mode of SSH private host key files under "/etc/ssh" to "0600" with the following command:
$ sudo chmod 0600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host*key
Restart the SSH daemon for the changes to take effect:
$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service