The Photon operating system must configure Secure Shell (SSH) to limit the number of allowed login attempts per connection.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258882	PHTN-40-000219	SV-258882r933707_rule		Medium

Description
By setting the login attempt limit to a low value, an attacker will be forced to reconnect frequently, which severely limits the speed and effectiveness of brute-force attacks.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62622r933705_chk )
At the command line, run the following command to verify the running configuration of sshd: # sshd -T|&grep -i MaxAuthTries Example result: maxauthtries 6 If "MaxAuthTries" is not set to "6", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62531r933706_fix)
Navigate to and open: /etc/ssh/sshd_config Ensure the "MaxAuthTries" line is uncommented and set to the following: MaxAuthTries 6 At the command line, run the following command: # systemctl restart sshd.service