The operating system must implement DoD-approved encryption to protect the confidentiality of remote access sessions.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-67487	AOSX-11-000035	SV-81977r1_rule		High

Description
The rexec service must be disabled. The rexec service does not implement crypto and has had several security vulnerabilities in the past. It is disabled by default; enabling it would increase the attack surface of the system. Without confidentiality protection mechanisms, unauthorized individuals may gain access to sensitive information via a remote access session. Remote access is access to DoD non-public information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, non-organization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless. Encryption provides a means to secure the remote connection to prevent unauthorized access to the data traversing the remote access connection (e.g., RDP) thereby providing a degree of confidentiality. The encryption strength of mechanism is selected based on the security categorization of the information.

Description

The rexec service must be disabled. The rexec service does not implement crypto and has had several security vulnerabilities in the past. It is disabled by default; enabling it would increase the attack surface of the system. Without confidentiality protection mechanisms, unauthorized individuals may gain access to sensitive information via a remote access session. Remote access is access to DoD non-public information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, non-organization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless. Encryption provides a means to secure the remote connection to prevent unauthorized access to the data traversing the remote access connection (e.g., RDP) thereby providing a degree of confidentiality. The encryption strength of mechanism is selected based on the security categorization of the information.

STIG	Date
Apple OS X 10.11 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-04-06

Details

Check Text ( C-68051r1_chk )
To check if the "rexec" service is disabled, use the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /bin/launchctl print-disabled system \| /usr/bin/grep com.apple.rexecd If the results do not show the following, this is a finding. "com.apple.rexecd" => true

Fix Text (F-73601r1_fix)
To disable the "rexec" service, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /bin/launchctl disable system/com.apple.rexecd The system may need to be restarted for the update to take effect.