Skip to content

Enable the GNOME3 Login Smartcard Authentication

An XCCDF Rule

Description

In the default graphical environment, smart card authentication can be enabled on the login screen by setting enable-smartcard-authentication to true.

To enable, add or edit enable-smartcard-authentication to /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/00-security-settings. For example:

[org/gnome/login-screen]
enable-smartcard-authentication=true
Once the setting has been added, add a lock to /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/locks/00-security-settings-lock to prevent user modification. For example:
/org/gnome/login-screen/enable-smartcard-authentication
After the settings have been set, run dconf update.

Rationale

Smart card login provides two-factor authentication stronger than that provided by a username and password combination. Smart cards leverage PKI (public key infrastructure) in order to provide and verify credentials.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_dconf_gnome_enable_smartcard_auth
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Shell Script

# 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 :

Remediation - Ansible

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - CCE-80108-4
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-010061