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DRAFT - Unclassified Information in Non-federal Information Systems and Organizations (NIST 800-171)

Rules and Groups employed by this XCCDF Profile

  • Disable SCTP Support

    The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a transport layer protocol, designed to support the idea of message-oriented communication, with several streams of messages within one connection...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable TIPC Support

    The Transparent Inter-Process Communication (TIPC) protocol is designed to provide communications between nodes in a cluster. To configure the system to prevent the <code>tipc</code> kernel module...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Wireless Networking

    Wireless networking, such as 802.11 (WiFi) and Bluetooth, can present a security risk to sensitive or classified systems and networks. Wireless networking hardware is much more likely to be include...
    Group
  • Disable Wireless Through Software Configuration

    If it is impossible to remove the wireless hardware from the device in question, disable as much of it as possible through software. The following methods can disable software support for wireless ...
    Group
  • Disable Bluetooth Kernel Module

    The kernel's module loading system can be configured to prevent loading of the Bluetooth module. Add the following to the appropriate <code>/etc/modprobe.d</code> configuration file to prevent the ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • File Permissions and Masks

    Traditional Unix security relies heavily on file and directory permissions to prevent unauthorized users from reading or modifying files to which they should not have access. <br> <br> Severa...
    Group
  • Restrict Partition Mount Options

    System partitions can be mounted with certain options that limit what files on those partitions can do. These options are set in the <code>/etc/fstab</code> configuration file, and can be used to m...
    Group
  • Add nodev Option to /var/log/audit

    The <code>nodev</code> mount option can be used to prevent device files from being created in <code>/var/log/audit</code>. Legitimate character and block devices should exist only in the <code>/dev...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Add noexec Option to /var/log/audit

    The <code>noexec</code> mount option can be used to prevent binaries from being executed out of <code>/var/log/audit</code>. Add the <code>noexec</code> option to the fourth column of <code>/etc/fs...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Add nosuid Option to /var/log/audit

    The <code>nosuid</code> mount option can be used to prevent execution of setuid programs in <code>/var/log/audit</code>. The SUID and SGID permissions should not be required in directories containi...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Restrict Programs from Dangerous Execution Patterns

    The recommendations in this section are designed to ensure that the system's features to protect against potentially dangerous program execution are activated. These protections are applied at the ...
    Group
  • Disable storing core dumps

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.core_pattern</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.core_pattern=|/bin/false</pre> To make sure that the sett...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Configure file name of core dumps

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.core_uses_pid</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.core_uses_pid=0</pre> To make sure that the setting is p...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Restrict Access to Kernel Message Buffer

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.dmesg_restrict</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.dmesg_restrict=1</pre> To make sure that the setting is...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Kernel Image Loading

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.kexec_load_disabled</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.kexec_load_disabled=1</pre> To make sure that the ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disallow kernel profiling by unprivileged users

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.perf_event_paranoid</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.perf_event_paranoid=2</pre> To make sure that the ...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Restrict usage of ptrace to descendant processes

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.yama.ptrace_scope</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=1</pre> To make sure that the sett...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable the use of user namespaces

    To set the runtime status of the <code>user.max_user_namespaces</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w user.max_user_namespaces=0</pre> To make sure that the set...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable Core Dumps

    A core dump file is the memory image of an executable program when it was terminated by the operating system due to errant behavior. In most cases, only software developers legitimately need to acc...
    Group
  • Disable acquiring, saving, and processing core dumps

    The systemd-coredump.socket unit is a socket activation of the systemd-coredump@.service which processes core dumps. By masking the unit, core dump processing is disabled.
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable ExecShield

    ExecShield describes kernel features that provide protection against exploitation of memory corruption errors such as buffer overflows. These features include random placement of the stack and othe...
    Group
  • Restrict Exposed Kernel Pointer Addresses Access

    To set the runtime status of the <code>kernel.kptr_restrict</code> kernel parameter, run the following command: <pre>$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.kptr_restrict=<xccdf-1.2:sub idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • SELinux

    SELinux is a feature of the Linux kernel which can be used to guard against misconfigured or compromised programs. SELinux enforces the idea that programs should be limited in what files they can a...
    Group
  • Configure SELinux Policy

    The SELinux <code>targeted</code> policy is appropriate for general-purpose desktops and servers, as well as systems in many other roles. To configure the system to use this policy, add or correct ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure SELinux State is Enforcing

    The SELinux state should be set to <code><xccdf-1.2:sub idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_selinux_state" use="legacy"></xccdf-1.2:sub></code> at system boot time. In the file <code>/et...
    Rule High Severity
  • Services

    The best protection against vulnerable software is running less software. This section describes how to review the software which Oracle Linux 9 installs on a system and disable software which is n...
    Group
  • Base Services

    This section addresses the base services that are installed on a Oracle Linux 9 default installation which are not covered in other sections. Some of these services listen on the network and should...
    Group
  • Disable KDump Kernel Crash Analyzer (kdump)

    The <code>kdump</code> service provides a kernel crash dump analyzer. It uses the <code>kexec</code> system call to boot a secondary kernel ("capture" kernel) following a system crash, which can lo...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Application Whitelisting Daemon

    Fapolicyd (File Access Policy Daemon) implements application whitelisting to decide file access rights. Applications that are known via a reputation source are allowed access while unknown applicat...
    Group
  • Install fapolicyd Package

    The fapolicyd package can be installed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum install fapolicyd
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable the File Access Policy Service

    The File Access Policy service should be enabled. The fapolicyd service can be enabled with the following command:
    $ sudo systemctl enable fapolicyd.service
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Network Time Protocol

    The Network Time Protocol is used to manage the system clock over a network. Computer clocks are not very accurate, so time will drift unpredictably on unmanaged systems. Central time protocols can...
    Group
  • The Chrony package is installed

    System time should be synchronized between all systems in an environment. This is typically done by establishing an authoritative time server or set of servers and having all systems synchronize th...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable chrony daemon from acting as server

    The <code>port</code> option in <code>/etc/chrony.conf</code> can be set to <code>0</code> to make chrony daemon to never open any listening port for server operation and to operate strictly in a c...
    Rule Low Severity
  • SSH Server

    The SSH protocol is recommended for remote login and remote file transfer. SSH provides confidentiality and integrity for data exchanged between two systems, as well as server authentication, throu...
    Group
  • Install OpenSSH client software

    The openssh-clients package can be installed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum install openssh-clients
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Install the OpenSSH Server Package

    The openssh-server package should be installed. The openssh-server package can be installed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum install openssh-server
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Configure OpenSSH Client if Necessary

    The following configuration changes apply to the SSH client. They can improve security parameters relwevant to the client user, e.g. increasing entropy while generating initialization vectors. Note...
    Group
  • Configure session renegotiation for SSH client

    The <code>RekeyLimit</code> parameter specifies how often the session key is renegotiated, both in terms of amount of data that may be transmitted and the time elapsed. To decrease the default limi...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • 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_config</code>. The following recommendations can be app...
    Group
  • Disable Host-Based Authentication

    SSH's cryptographic host-based authentication is more secure than <code>.rhosts</code> authentication. However, it is not recommended that hosts unilaterally trust one another, even within an organ...
    Rule Medium 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 if no value is set for <code>PermitEmptyPasswords<...
    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 authentications based on GSSAPI. The appropriate c...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable Kerberos Authentication

    Unless needed, SSH should not permit extraneous or unnecessary authentication mechanisms like Kerberos. <br> The default SSH configuration disallows authentication validation through Kerberos. The ...
    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 line in <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_config</code>: <pre>Pe...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable SSH Warning Banner

    To enable the warning banner and ensure it is consistent across the system, add or correct the following line in <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_config</code>: <pre>Banner /etc/issue</pre> Another section c...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Force frequent session key renegotiation

    The <code>RekeyLimit</code> parameter specifies how often the session key of the is renegotiated, both in terms of amount of data that may be transmitted and the time elapsed.<br> To decrease the d...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Distribute the SSH Server configuration to multiple files in a config directory.

    Make sure to have the <code>Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf</code> line in the <code>/etc/ssh/sshd_config</code> file. Ideally, don't have any active configuration directives in that file, an...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • USBGuard daemon

    The USBGuard daemon enforces the USB device authorization policy for all USB devices.
    Group
  • Install usbguard Package

    The usbguard package can be installed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum install usbguard
    Rule Medium Severity

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