Prevent remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display

An XCCDF Rule

Description

The SSH daemon should prevent remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display.
The default SSH configuration for X11UseLocalhost is yes, which prevents remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display.
To explicitly prevent remote connections to the proxy display, add or correct the following line in /etc/ssh/sshd_config: X11UseLocalhost yes

Rationale

When X11 forwarding is enabled, there may be additional exposure to the server and client displays if the sshd proxy display is configured to listen on the wildcard address. By default, sshd binds the forwarding server to the loopback address and sets the hostname part of the DISPLAY environment variable to localhost. This prevents remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_sshd_x11_use_localhost
Severity: Medium
References: CCI-000366

CM-6(b)

SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

SV-233307r603301_rule
Updated: about 1 year ago

- name: Prevent remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display
  block:

  - name: Check for duplicate values
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config      create: true
      regexp: (?i)^\s*X11UseLocalhost\s+
      state: absent
    check_mode: true
    changed_when: false
    register: dupes

  - name: Deduplicate values from /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
      create: true
      regexp: (?i)^\s*X11UseLocalhost\s+
      state: absent
    when: dupes.found is defined and dupes.found > 1

  - name: Insert correct line to /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
      create: true
      regexp: (?i)^\s*X11UseLocalhost\s+
      line: X11UseLocalhost yes
      state: present
      insertbefore: BOF
      validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -t -f %s
  when: ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-040711
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(b)
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
  - sshd_x11_use_localhost

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then

if [ -e "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" ] ; then
    
    LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*X11UseLocalhost\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"else
    touch "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"
fi
# make sure file has newline at the end
sed -i -e '$a\' "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"

cp "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.bak"
# Insert at the beginning of the file
printf '%s\n' "X11UseLocalhost yes" > "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"
cat "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.bak" >> "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"
# Clean up after ourselves.
rm "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.bak"

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

Prevent remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display

Description

Rationale

Remediation - Ansible

Remediation - Shell Script