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XCCDF
Guide to the Secure Configuration of openSUSE
System Settings
Account and Access Control
Protect Physical Console Access
Protect Physical Console Access
An XCCDF Group - A logical subset of the XCCDF Benchmark
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Protect Physical Console Access
It is impossible to fully protect a system from an attacker with physical access, so securing the space in which the system is located should be considered a necessary step. However, there are some steps which, if taken, make it more difficult for an attacker to quickly or undetectably modify a system from its console.
Login timeout for idle sessions
Specify duration of allowed idle time.
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 screen locking to be effective, and policies can be implemented to reinforce this.
Automatic screen locking is only meant as a safeguard for those cases where a user forgot to lock the screen.
Configure Console Screen Locking
A console screen locking mechanism is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not logout because of the temporary nature of the absence. Rather than relying on the user to manually lock their operation system session prior to vacating the vicinity, operating systems need to be able to identify when a user's session has idled and take action to initiate the session lock.
Hardware Tokens for Authentication
The use of hardware tokens such as smart cards for system login provides stronger, two-factor authentication than using a username and password. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and workstations, hardware token login is not enabled by default and must be enabled in the system settings.
OpenSC Smart Card Drivers
Choose the Smart Card Driver in use by your organization.
For DoD, choose the
cac
driver.
If your driver is not listed and you don't want to use the
default
driver, use the
other
option and manually specify your driver.