Disable SSH Support for .rhosts Files

An XCCDF Rule

Description

SSH can emulate the behavior of the obsolete rsh command in allowing users to enable insecure access to their accounts via .rhosts files.
The default SSH configuration disables support for .rhosts. The appropriate configuration is used if no value is set for IgnoreRhosts.
To explicitly disable support for .rhosts files, add or correct the following line in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf:

IgnoreRhosts yes

Rationale

SSH trust relationships mean a compromise on one host can allow an attacker to move trivially to other hosts.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_sshd_disable_rhosts
Severity: Medium
References: 11 12 14 15 16 18 3 5 9

5.5.6

BAI10.01 BAI10.02 BAI10.03 BAI10.05 DSS05.02 DSS05.04 DSS05.05 DSS05.07 DSS06.03 DSS06.06

3.1.12

CCI-000366

4.3.3.2.2 4.3.3.5.1 4.3.3.5.2 4.3.3.5.3 4.3.3.5.4 4.3.3.5.5 4.3.3.5.6 4.3.3.5.7 4.3.3.5.8 4.3.3.6.1 4.3.3.6.2 4.3.3.6.3 4.3.3.6.4 4.3.3.6.5 4.3.3.6.6 4.3.3.6.7 4.3.3.6.8 4.3.3.6.9 4.3.3.7.1 4.3.3.7.2 4.3.3.7.3 4.3.3.7.4 4.3.4.3.2 4.3.4.3.3

SR 1.1 SR 1.10 SR 1.11 SR 1.12 SR 1.13 SR 1.2 SR 1.3 SR 1.4 SR 1.5 SR 1.6 SR 1.7 SR 1.8 SR 1.9 SR 2.1 SR 2.2 SR 2.3 SR 2.4 SR 2.5 SR 2.6 SR 2.7 SR 7.6

A.12.1.2 A.12.5.1 A.12.6.2 A.14.2.2 A.14.2.3 A.14.2.4 A.6.1.2 A.7.1.1 A.9.1.2 A.9.2.1 A.9.2.3 A.9.4.1 A.9.4.4 A.9.4.5

AC-17(a) CM-6(a) CM-7(a) CM-7(b)

PR.AC-4 PR.AC-6 PR.IP-1 PR.PT-3

FIA_UAU.1

2.2.6

SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

5.1.13

SV-258005r952206_rule
Updated: about 1 month ago

Remediation Templates

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then
mkdir -p /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
touch /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf

LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*IgnoreRhosts\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*IgnoreRhosts\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d"/*.conf
if [ -e "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf" ] ; then
    
    LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*IgnoreRhosts\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
else
    touch "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
fi
# make sure file has newline at the end
sed -i -e '$a\' "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"

cp "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf.bak"
# Insert at the beginning of the file
printf '%s\n' "IgnoreRhosts yes" > "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
cat "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf.bak" >> "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
# Clean up after ourselves.
rm "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf.bak"

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

- name: Disable SSH Support for .rhosts Files
  block:
  - name: Deduplicate values from /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
      create: false      regexp: (?i)^\s*{{ "IgnoreRhosts"| regex_escape }}\s+
      state: absent

  - name: Check if /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d exists
    stat:
      path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
    register: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_exists

  - name: Check if the parameter IgnoreRhosts is present in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
    find:
      paths: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
      recurse: 'yes'
      follow: 'no'
      contains: (?i)^\s*{{ "IgnoreRhosts"| regex_escape }}\s+
    register: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_has_parameter
    when: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_exists.stat.isdir is defined and _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_exists.stat.isdir

  - name: Remove parameter from files in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
    lineinfile:
      path: '{{ item.path }}'
      create: false
      regexp: (?i)^\s*{{ "IgnoreRhosts"| regex_escape }}\s+
      state: absent
    with_items: '{{ _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_has_parameter.files }}'
    when: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_has_parameter.matched

  - name: Insert correct line to /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf
      create: true
      regexp: (?i)^\s*{{ "IgnoreRhosts"| regex_escape }}\s+
      line: IgnoreRhosts yes
      state: present
      insertbefore: BOF
      validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -t -f %s
  when: ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - CJIS-5.5.6
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-09-255145
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.12
  - NIST-800-53-AC-17(a)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-7(a)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-7(b)
  - PCI-DSSv4-2.2.6
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
  - sshd_disable_rhosts

Disable SSH Support for .rhosts Files

Description

Rationale

Remediation Templates

A Shell Script

An Ansible Snippet