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Guide to the Secure Configuration of Ubuntu 20.04

Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark

  • Prevent Login to Accounts With Empty Password

    If an account is configured for password authentication but does not have an assigned password, it may be possible to log into the account without ...
    Rule High Severity
  • Ensure the Group Used by pam_wheel.so Module Exists on System and is Empty

    Ensure that the group <code><xccdf-1.2:sub idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_pam_wheel_group_for_su" use="legacy"></xccdf-1.2:sub></cod...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enforce Usage of pam_wheel with Group Parameter for su Authentication

    To ensure that only users who are members of the group set in the <code>group</code> option of <code>pam_wheel.so</code> module can run commands wi...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure auditd Collects Information on Kernel Module Unloading - delete_module

    To capture kernel module unloading events, use following line, setting ARCH to either b32 for 32-bit system, or having two lines for both b32 and b...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure auditd Collects Information on Kernel Module Loading and Unloading - finit_module

    If the <code>auditd</code> daemon is configured to use the <code>augenrules</code> program to read audit rules during daemon startup (the default),...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure auditd Collects Information on Kernel Module Loading - init_module

    To capture kernel module loading events, use following line, setting ARCH to either b32 for 32-bit system, or having two lines for both b32 and b64...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Record Attempts to Alter Logon and Logout Events

    The audit system already collects login information for all users and root. If the <code>auditd</code> daemon is configured to use the <code>augenr...
    Group
  • Ensure auditd Collects Information on the Use of Privileged Commands - kmod

    At a minimum, the audit system should collect the execution of privileged commands for all users and root. If the <code>auditd</code> daemon is con...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Set SSH Client Alive Count Max to zero

    The SSH server sends at most <code>ClientAliveCountMax</code> messages during a SSH session and waits for a response from the SSH client. The optio...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure auditd Collects Information on the Use of Privileged Commands - ssh-keysign

    At a minimum, the audit system should collect the execution of privileged commands for all users and root. If the <code>auditd</code> daemon is con...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Type of hostname to record the audit event

    Type of hostname to record the audit event
    Value
  • Set type of computer node name logging in audit logs

    To configure Audit daemon to use a unique identifier as computer node name in the audit events, set <code>name_format</code> to <code><xccdf-1.2:su...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Restrict unprivileged access to the kernel syslog

    Enforce restrictions on unprivileged users reading the kernel syslog via dmesg(8). The configuration that was used to build kernel is available at...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure Log Files Are Owned By Appropriate Group

    The group-owner of all log files written by <code>rsyslog</code> should be <code>adm</code>. These log files are determined by the second part of e...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Dectivate firewalld Rules

    Firewalls can be used to separate networks into different zones based on the level of trust the user has decided to place on the devices and traffi...
    Group
  • Ensure nftables Default Deny Firewall Policy

    Base chain policy is the default verdict that will be applied to packets reaching the end of the chain. There are two policies: accept (Default) an...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Network Manager

    The NetworkManager daemon configures a variety of network connections. This section discusses how to configure NetworkManager.
    Group
  • NetoworkManager DNS Mode

    This sets how NetworkManager handles DNS. none - NetworkManager will not modify resolv.conf. default - NetworkManager will update /etc/resolv.con...
    Value
  • Verify that All World-Writable Directories Have Sticky Bits Set

    When the so-called 'sticky bit' is set on a directory, only the owner of a given file may remove that file from the directory. Without the sticky b...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable Host-Based Authentication

    SSH's cryptographic host-based authentication is more secure than <code>.rhosts</code> authentication. However, it is not recommended that hosts un...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Access via Empty Passwords

    Disallow SSH login with empty passwords. The default SSH configuration disables logins with empty passwords. The appropriate configuration is used ...
    Rule High Severity
  • Disable GSSAPI Authentication

    Unless needed, SSH should not permit extraneous or unnecessary authentication mechanisms like GSSAPI. <br> The default SSH configuration disallows ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable Kerberos Authentication

    Unless needed, SSH should not permit extraneous or unnecessary authentication mechanisms like Kerberos. <br> The default SSH configuration disallow...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable PubkeyAuthentication Authentication

    Unless needed, SSH should not permit extraneous or unnecessary authentication mechanisms. To disable PubkeyAuthentication authentication, add or co...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Support for .rhosts Files

    SSH can emulate the behavior of the obsolete rsh command in allowing users to enable insecure access to their accounts via <code>.rhosts</code> fil...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Root Login

    The root user should never be allowed to login to a system directly over a network. To disable root login via SSH, add or correct the following lin...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH root Login with a Password (Insecure)

    To disable password-based root logins over SSH, add or correct the following line in <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.c...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH TCP Forwarding

    The <code>AllowTcpForwarding</code> parameter specifies whether TCP forwarding is permitted. To disable TCP forwarding, add or correct the followin...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable X11 Forwarding

    The X11Forwarding parameter provides the ability to tunnel X11 traffic through the connection to enable remote graphic connections. SSH has the cap...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Do Not Allow SSH Environment Options

    Ensure that users are not able to override environment variables of the SSH daemon. <br> The default SSH configuration disables environment process...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable GSSAPI Authentication

    Sites setup to use Kerberos or other GSSAPI Authenticaion require setting sshd to accept this authentication. To enable GSSAPI authentication, add ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable PAM

    UsePAM Enables the Pluggable Authentication Module interface. If set to “yes” this will enable PAM authentication using ChallengeResponseAuthentica...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable Public Key Authentication

    Enable SSH login with public keys. <br> The default SSH configuration enables authentication based on public keys. The appropriate configuration is...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Force frequent session key renegotiation

    The <code>RekeyLimit</code> parameter specifies how often the session key of the is renegotiated, both in terms of amount of data that may be trans...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Set LogLevel to INFO

    The INFO parameter specifices that record login and logout activity will be logged. <br> The default SSH configuration sets the log level to INFO. ...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Prevent remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display

    The SSH daemon should prevent remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display. <br> The default SSH configuration for <code>X11UseLocalhost</code...
    Rule Medium Severity

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