Skip to content

Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight

Rules and Groups employed by this XCCDF Profile

  • Disable Avahi Server Software

    The avahi-daemon service can be disabled with the following command:
    $ sudo systemctl mask --now avahi-daemon.service
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Obsolete Services

    This section discusses a number of network-visible services which have historically caused problems for system security, and for which disabling or...
    Group
  • Xinetd

    The <code>xinetd</code> service acts as a dedicated listener for some network services (mostly, obsolete ones) and can be used to provide access co...
    Group
  • Uninstall xinetd Package

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

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

    The Network Information Service (NIS), also known as 'Yellow Pages' (YP), and its successor NIS+ have been made obsolete by Kerberos, LDAP, and oth...
    Group
  • Remove NIS Client

    The Network Information Service (NIS), formerly known as Yellow Pages, is a client-server directory service protocol used to distribute system conf...
    Rule Unknown Severity
  • Rlogin, Rsh, and Rexec

    The Berkeley r-commands are legacy services which allow cleartext remote access and have an insecure trust model.
    Group
  • Uninstall rsh-server Package

    The rsh-server package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase rsh-server
    Rule High Severity
  • Uninstall rsh Package

    The rsh package contains the client commands for the rsh services
    Rule Unknown Severity
  • Chat/Messaging Services

    The talk software makes it possible for users to send and receive messages across systems through a terminal session.
    Group
  • Uninstall talk-server Package

    The talk-server package can be removed with the following command:
     $ sudo yum erase talk-server
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Uninstall talk Package

    The <code>talk</code> package contains the client program for the Internet talk protocol, which allows the user to chat with other users on differe...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Telnet

    The telnet protocol does not provide confidentiality or integrity for information transmitted on the network. This includes authentication informat...
    Group
  • Uninstall telnet-server Package

    The telnet-server package can be removed with the following command:
    $ sudo yum erase telnet-server
    Rule High Severity
  • Remove telnet Clients

    The telnet client allows users to start connections to other systems via the telnet protocol.
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable telnet Service

    Make sure that the activation of the <code>telnet</code> service on system boot is disabled. The <code>telnet</code> socket can be disabled with t...
    Rule High Severity
  • Proxy Server

    A proxy server is a very desirable target for a potential adversary because much (or all) sensitive data for a given infrastructure may flow throug...
    Group
  • Disable Squid if Possible

    If Squid was installed and activated, but the system does not need to act as a proxy server, then it should be disabled and removed.
    Group
  • Uninstall squid Package

    The squid package can be removed with the following command:
     $ sudo yum erase squid
    Rule Unknown Severity
  • Disable Squid

    The squid service can be disabled with the following command:
    $ sudo systemctl mask --now squid.service
    Rule Unknown Severity
  • 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

The content of the drawer really is up to you. It could have form fields, definition lists, text lists, labels, charts, progress bars, etc. Spacing recommendation is 24px margins. You can put tabs in here, and can also make the drawer scrollable.

Capacity
Modules