RHEL 9 SSH daemon must not allow known hosts authentication.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-258006 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | RHEL-09-255150 | SV-258006r1045071_rule | 2025-02-27 | 2 |
| 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 the 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 |