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Guide to the Secure Configuration of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark

  • Uninstall abrt-addon-python Package

    The abrt-addon-python package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase abrt-addon-python
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall abrt-cli Package

    The abrt-cli package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase abrt-cli
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall abrt-plugin-logger Package

    The abrt-plugin-logger package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase abrt-plugin-logger
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall abrt-plugin-rhtsupport Package

    The abrt-plugin-rhtsupport package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase abrt-plugin-rhtsupport
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall abrt-plugin-sosreport Package

    The abrt-plugin-sosreport package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase abrt-plugin-sosreport
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall geolite2-city Package

    The geolite2-city package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase geolite2-city
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall geolite2-country Package

    The geolite2-country package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase geolite2-country
    Rule Low Severity
  • Uninstall gssproxy Package

    The gssproxy package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase gssproxy
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Uninstall iprutils Package

    The iprutils package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase iprutils
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Uninstall tuned Package

    The tuned package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase tuned
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Updating Software

    The <code>yum</code> command line tool is used to install and update software packages. The system also provides a graphical software update tool in the <b>System</b> menu, in the <b>Administration...
    Group
  • Ensure yum Removes Previous Package Versions

    <code>yum</code> should be configured to remove previous software components after new versions have been installed. To configure <code>yum</code> to remove the previous software components after ...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Ensure gpgcheck Enabled In Main yum Configuration

    The <code>gpgcheck</code> option controls whether RPM packages' signatures are always checked prior to installation. To configure yum to check package signatures before installing them, ensure the ...
    Rule High Severity
  • Ensure gpgcheck Enabled for Local Packages

    <code>yum</code> should be configured to verify the signature(s) of local packages prior to installation. To configure <code>yum</code> to verify signatures of local packages, set the <code>localpk...
    Rule High Severity
  • Ensure gpgcheck Enabled for All yum Package Repositories

    To ensure signature checking is not disabled for any repos, remove any lines from files in /etc/yum.repos.d of the form:
    gpgcheck=0
    Rule High Severity
  • Ensure gpgcheck Enabled for Repository Metadata

    Verify the operating system prevents the installation of patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification of the repository metadata. Ch...
    Rule High Severity
  • Ensure Red Hat GPG Key Installed

    To ensure the system can cryptographically verify base software packages come from Red Hat (and to connect to the Red Hat Network to receive them), the Red Hat GPG key must properly be installed. T...
    Rule High Severity
  • Configure PAMs passwd Module To Implement system-auth Substack When Changing Passwords

    Verify that pam is configured to use <code>/etc/pam.d/system-auth</code> when changing passwords. Look for the following line in <code>/etc/pam.d/passwd</code>: <pre>password substack system-auth</...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure Software Patches Installed

    If the system is joined to the Red Hat Network, a Red Hat Satellite Server, or a yum server, run the following command to install updates: <pre>$ sudo yum update</pre> If the system is not configu...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Account and Access Control

    In traditional Unix security, if an attacker gains shell access to a certain login account, they can perform any action or access any file to which that account has access. Therefore, making it mor...
    Group
  • Authselect profile

    Specify the authselect profile to select
    Value
  • Ensure system-auth and password-auth files are symbolic links pointing to system-auth-local and password-auth-local

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 must be configured to prevent overwriting of custom authentication configuration settings by the authconfig utility. This can be avoided by creating new local configurati...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Warning Banners for System Accesses

    Each system should expose as little information about itself as possible. <br><br> System banners, which are typically displayed just before a login prompt, give out information about the service o...
    Group
  • Login Banner Verbiage

    Enter an appropriate login banner for your organization. Please note that new lines must be expressed by the '\n' character and special characters like parentheses and quotation marks must be escap...
    Value
  • MotD Banner Verbiage

    Enter an appropriate login banner for your organization. Please note that new lines must be expressed by the '\n' character and special characters like parentheses and quotation marks must be escap...
    Value
  • Remote Login Banner Verbiage

    Enter an appropriate login banner for your organization. Please note that new lines must be expressed by the '\n' character and special characters like parentheses and quotation marks must be escap...
    Value
  • Modify the System Login Banner

    To configure the system login banner edit <code>/etc/issue</code>. Replace the default text with a message compliant with the local site policy or a legal disclaimer. The DoD required text is ei...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify permissions on System Login Banner

    To properly set the permissions of /etc/issue, run the command:
    $ sudo chmod 0644 /etc/issue
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Configure Screen Locking

    When a user must temporarily leave an account logged-in, screen locking should be employed to prevent passersby from abusing the account. User education and training is particularly important for s...
    Group
  • Modify the System Login Banner for Remote Connections

    To configure the system login banner edit <code>/etc/issue.net</code>. Replace the default text with a message compliant with the local site policy or a legal disclaimer. The DoD required text is ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Modify the System Message of the Day Banner

    To configure the system message banner edit <code>/etc/motd</code>. Replace the default text with a message compliant with the local site policy or a legal disclaimer. The DoD required text is eit...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify Group Ownership of System Login Banner

    To properly set the group owner of /etc/issue, run the command:
    $ sudo chgrp root /etc/issue
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify Group Ownership of System Login Banner for Remote Connections

    To properly set the group owner of /etc/issue.net, run the command:
    $ sudo chgrp root /etc/issue.net
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify Group Ownership of Message of the Day Banner

    To properly set the group owner of /etc/motd, run the command:
    $ sudo chgrp root /etc/motd
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify ownership of System Login Banner

    To properly set the owner of /etc/issue, run the command:
    $ sudo chown root /etc/issue 
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify ownership of System Login Banner for Remote Connections

    To properly set the owner of /etc/issue.net, run the command:
    $ sudo chown root /etc/issue.net 
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify ownership of Message of the Day Banner

    To properly set the owner of /etc/motd, run the command:
    $ sudo chown root /etc/motd 
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify permissions on System Login Banner for Remote Connections

    To properly set the permissions of /etc/issue.net, run the command:
    $ sudo chmod 0644 /etc/issue.net
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify permissions on Message of the Day Banner

    To properly set the permissions of /etc/motd, run the command:
    $ sudo chmod 0644 /etc/motd
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Implement a GUI Warning Banner

    In the default graphical environment, users logging directly into the system are greeted with a login screen provided by the GNOME Display Manager (GDM). The warning banner should be displayed in t...
    Group
  • Enable GNOME3 Login Warning Banner

    In the default graphical environment, displaying a login warning banner in the GNOME Display Manager's login screen can be enabled on the login screen by setting <code>banner-message-enable</code> ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Set the GNOME3 Login Warning Banner Text

    In the default graphical environment, configuring the login warning banner text in the GNOME Display Manager's login screen can be configured on the login screen by setting <code>banner-message-tex...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Protect Accounts by Configuring PAM

    PAM, or Pluggable Authentication Modules, is a system which implements modular authentication for Linux programs. PAM provides a flexible and configurable architecture for authentication, and it sh...
    Group
  • Password Hashing algorithm

    Specify the system default encryption algorithm for encrypting passwords. Defines the value set as ENCRYPT_METHOD in /etc/login.defs.
    Value
  • remember

    The last n passwords for each user are saved in <code>/etc/security/opasswd</code> in order to force password change history and keep the user from alternating between the same password too frequen...
    Value
  • Install pam_pwquality Package

    The libpwquality package can be installed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum install libpwquality
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disallow Configuration to Bypass Password Requirements for Privilege Escalation

    Verify the operating system is not configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. Check the configuration of the "/etc/pam.d/sudo" file with the following command: <pre>$ sudo...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Set Up a Private Namespace in PAM Configuration

    To setup a private namespace add the following line to /etc/pam.d/login:
    session    required     pam_namespace.so
    Rule Low Severity
  • Set Lockouts for Failed Password Attempts

    The <code>pam_faillock</code> PAM module provides the capability to lock out user accounts after a number of failed login attempts. Its documentation is available in <code>/usr/share/doc/pam-VERSIO...
    Group
  • fail_deny

    Number of failed login attempts before account lockout
    Value

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