The macOS system must implement approved ciphers to protect the confidentiality of SSH connections.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
<VulnDiscussion>Unapproved mechanisms for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied on to provide confidentiality or integrity, resulting in the compromise of DOD data. Operating systems using encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules. The implementation of OpenSSH included with macOS does not use a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic module. While the listed ciphers are FIPS 140-2 approved algorithms, the module implementing them has not been validated. By specifying a cipher list with the order of ciphers being in a "strongest to weakest" orientation, the system will automatically attempt to use the strongest cipher for securing SSH connections. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000033-GPOS-00014, SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061, SRG-OS-000125-GPOS-00065, SRG-OS-000250-GPOS-00093, SRG-OS-000393-GPOS-00173, SRG-OS-000394-GPOS-00174</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>
- ID
- SV-257165r905128_rule
- Severity
- High
- References
- Updated
Remediation - Manual Procedure
Configure the macOS system to use approved SSH ciphers with the following command:
/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep -q '^Ciphers' /etc/ssh/sshd_config && /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/sed -i.bak 's/^Ciphers.*/Ciphers aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config || /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/sed -i.bak '/.*Ciphers and keying.*/a\'$'\nCiphers aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr'$'\n' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
The SSH service must be restarted for changes to take effect.