Root passwords must never be passed over a network in clear text form.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-1046	GEN001100	SV-38240r1_rule	ECNK-1 ECNK-2 IAIA-1 IAIA-2	High

Description
If a user accesses the root account (or any account) using an unencrypted connection, the password is passed over the network in clear text form and is subject to interception and misuse. This is true even if recommended procedures are followed by logging on to a named account and using the su command to access root.

STIG	Date
HP-UX 11.31 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-06-27

Details

Check Text ( C-36280r1_chk )

Perform the following to determine if root has logged in over an unencrypted network connection. The first command determines if root has logged in over a network. The second will check to see if the SSH daemon is running. Procedure: # last -R | grep "^root " | egrep -v "reboot|console" | more # ps -ef |grep sshd If the output from the last command shows root has logged in over the network and sshd is not running, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-31537r1_fix)
Enable SSH on the system and use it for all remote connections used to attain root access.