Skip to content

Enable Smartcards in SSSD

An XCCDF Rule

Description

SSSD should be configured to authenticate access to the system using smart cards. To enable smart cards in SSSD, set pam_cert_auth to True under the [pam] section in /etc/sssd/sssd.conf. For example:

[pam]
pam_cert_auth = True
Add or update "pam_sss.so" line in auth section of "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file to include "try_cert_auth" or "require_cert_auth" option, like in the following example:
/etc/pam.d/system-auth:auth [success=done authinfo_unavail=ignore ignore=ignore default=die] pam_sss.so try_cert_auth
Also add or update "pam_sss.so" line in auth section of "/etc/pam.d/smartcard-auth" file to include the "allow_missing_name" option, like in the following example:
/etc/pam.d/smartcard-auth:auth sufficient pam_sss.so allow_missing_name

Rationale

Using an authentication device, such as a CAC or token that is separate from the information system, ensures that even if the information system is compromised, that compromise will not affect credentials stored on the authentication device.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) solutions that require devices separate from information systems gaining access include, for example, hardware tokens providing time-based or challenge-response authenticators and smart cards such as the U.S. Government Personal Identity Verification card and the DoD Common Access Card.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_sssd_enable_smartcards
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Ansible

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-08-020250
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.3

Remediation - Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q sssd-common && { [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; }; then

# sssd configuration files must be created with 600 permissions if they don't exist
# otherwise the sssd module fails to start
OLD_UMASK=$(umask)