Require Credential Prompting for Remote Access in GNOME3

An XCCDF Rule

Description

By default, GNOME does not require credentials when using Vino for remote access. To configure the system to require remote credentials, add or set authentication-methods to ['vnc'] in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-security-settings. For example:

[org/gnome/Vino]
authentication-methods=['vnc']

Once the settings have been added, add a lock to /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/00-security-settings-lock to prevent user modification. For example:

/org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods

After the settings have been set, run dconf update.

Rationale

Username and password prompting is required for remote access. Otherwise, non-authorized and nefarious users can access the system freely.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_dconf_gnome_remote_access_credential_prompt
Severity: Medium
References: 3.1.12

164.308(a)(4)(i) 164.308(b)(1) 164.308(b)(3) 164.310(b) 164.312(e)(1) 164.312(e)(2)(ii)
Updated: about 1 year ago

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.12
  - dconf_gnome_remote_access_credential_prompt  - low_complexity
  - medium_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - unknown_strategy

- name: Require Credential Prompting for Remote Access in GNOME3
  ini_file:
    dest: /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-security-settings
    section: org/gnome/Vino
    option: authentication-methods
    value: '[''vnc'']'
    create: true
    no_extra_spaces: true
  when:
  - '"gdm" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.12
  - dconf_gnome_remote_access_credential_prompt
  - low_complexity
  - medium_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - unknown_strategy

- name: Prevent user modification of GNOME3 Credential Prompting for Remote Access
  lineinfile:
    path: /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/00-security-settings-lock
    regexp: ^/org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods$
    line: /org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods
    create: true
  when:
  - '"gdm" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.12
  - dconf_gnome_remote_access_credential_prompt
  - low_complexity
  - medium_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - unknown_strategy

- name: Dconf Update
  command: dconf update
  when:
  - '"gdm" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.12
  - dconf_gnome_remote_access_credential_prompt
  - low_complexity
  - medium_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - unknown_strategy

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

# Check for setting in any of the DConf db directories
# If files contain ibus or distro, ignore them.
# The assignment assumes that individual filenames don't contain :readarray -t SETTINGSFILES < <(grep -r "\\[org/gnome/Vino\\]" "/etc/dconf/db/" \
                                | grep -v 'distro\|ibus\|local.d' | cut -d":" -f1)
DCONFFILE="/etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-security-settings"
DBDIR="/etc/dconf/db/local.d"

mkdir -p "${DBDIR}"

# Comment out the configurations in databases different from the target one
if [ "${#SETTINGSFILES[@]}" -ne 0 ]
then
    if grep -q "^\\s*authentication-methods\\s*=" "${SETTINGSFILES[@]}"
    then
        
        sed -Ei "s/(^\s*)authentication-methods(\s*=)/#\1authentication-methods\2/g" "${SETTINGSFILES[@]}"
    fi
fi

[ ! -z "${DCONFFILE}" ] && echo "" >> "${DCONFFILE}"
if ! grep -q "\\[org/gnome/Vino\\]" "${DCONFFILE}"
then
    printf '%s\n' "[org/gnome/Vino]" >> ${DCONFFILE}
fi

escaped_value="$(sed -e 's/\\/\\\\/g' <<< "['vnc']")"
if grep -q "^\\s*authentication-methods\\s*=" "${DCONFFILE}"
then
        sed -i "s/\\s*authentication-methods\\s*=\\s*.*/authentication-methods=${escaped_value}/g" "${DCONFFILE}"
    else
        sed -i "\\|\\[org/gnome/Vino\\]|a\\authentication-methods=${escaped_value}" "${DCONFFILE}"
fi

dconf update
# Check for setting in any of the DConf db directories
LOCKFILES=$(grep -r "^/org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods$" "/etc/dconf/db/" \
            | grep -v 'distro\|ibus\|local.d' | grep ":" | cut -d":" -f1)
LOCKSFOLDER="/etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks"

mkdir -p "${LOCKSFOLDER}"

# Comment out the configurations in databases different from the target one
if [[ ! -z "${LOCKFILES}" ]]
then
    sed -i -E "s|^/org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods$|#&|" "${LOCKFILES[@]}"
fi

if ! grep -qr "^/org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods$" /etc/dconf/db/local.d/
then
    echo "/org/gnome/Vino/authentication-methods" >> "/etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/00-security-settings-lock"
fi

dconf update

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

Require Credential Prompting for Remote Access in GNOME3

Description

Rationale

Remediation - Ansible

Remediation - Shell Script