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DRAFT - Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight

Rules and Groups employed by this XCCDF Profile

  • Network Routing

    A router is a very desirable target for a potential adversary because they fulfill a variety of infrastructure networking roles such as access to ...
    Group
  • Disable Quagga if Possible

    If Quagga was installed and activated, but the system does not need to act as a router, then it should be disabled and removed.
    Group
  • Uninstall quagga Package

    The quagga package can be removed with the following command:
     $ sudo yum erase quagga
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Quagga Service

    The zebra service can be disabled with the following command:
    $ sudo systemctl mask --now zebra.service
    Rule Medium Severity
  • SSH Server

    The SSH protocol is recommended for remote login and remote file transfer. SSH provides confidentiality and integrity for data exchanged between tw...
    Group
  • Configure OpenSSH Server if Necessary

    If the system needs to act as an SSH server, then certain changes should be made to the OpenSSH daemon configuration file <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_confi...
    Group
  • Allow Only SSH Protocol 2

    Only SSH protocol version 2 connections should be permitted. The default setting in <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_config</code> is correct, and can be verifi...
    Rule High Severity
  • Disable SSH Access via Empty Passwords

    Disallow SSH login with empty passwords. The default SSH configuration disables logins with empty passwords. The appropriate configuration is used ...
    Rule High Severity
  • Disable GSSAPI Authentication

    Unless needed, SSH should not permit extraneous or unnecessary authentication mechanisms like GSSAPI. <br> The default SSH configuration disallows ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Support for .rhosts Files

    SSH can emulate the behavior of the obsolete rsh command in allowing users to enable insecure access to their accounts via <code>.rhosts</code> fil...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Support for Rhosts RSA Authentication

    SSH can allow authentication through the obsolete rsh command through the use of the authenticating user's SSH keys. This should be disabled. <br><...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Root Login

    The root user should never be allowed to login to a system directly over a network. To disable root login via SSH, add or correct the following lin...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable SSH Support for User Known Hosts

    SSH can allow system users to connect to systems if a cache of the remote systems public keys is available. This should be disabled. <br><br> To e...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Do Not Allow SSH Environment Options

    Ensure that users are not able to override environment variables of the SSH daemon. <br> The default SSH configuration disables environment process...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable Use of Strict Mode Checking

    SSHs <code>StrictModes</code> option checks file and ownership permissions in the user's home directory <code>.ssh</code> folder before accepting l...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable SSH Print Last Log

    Ensure that SSH will display the date and time of the last successful account logon. <br> The default SSH configuration enables print of the date a...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Set LogLevel to INFO

    The INFO parameter specifices that record login and logout activity will be logged. <br> The default SSH configuration sets the log level to INFO. ...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Use Only Strong Ciphers

    Limit the ciphers to strong algorithms. Counter (CTR) mode is also preferred over cipher-block chaining (CBC) mode. The following line in <code>/et...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Use Only Strong MACs

    Limit the MACs to strong hash algorithms. The following line in <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_config</code> demonstrates use of those MACs: <pre>MACs <xccdf-...
    Rule Medium Severity

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