The telnet daemon must not be running.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
RHEL-06-000208	RHEL-06-000208	RHEL-06-000208_rule		High

Description
The telnet protocol uses unencrypted network communication, which means that data from the login session, including passwords and all other information transmitted during the session, can be stolen by eavesdroppers on the network. The telnet protocol is also subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-02-05

Details

Check Text ( C-RHEL-06-000208_chk )
To check that the "telnet" service is disabled in system boot configuration, run the following command: # chkconfig "telnet" --list Output should indicate the "telnet" service has either not been installed, or has been disabled at all runlevels, as shown in the example below: # chkconfig "telnet" --list "telnet" 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off Run the following command to verify "telnet" is disabled through current runtime configuration: # service telnet status If the service is disabled the command will return the following output: telnet is stopped If the service is running, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-RHEL-06-000208_chk )

To check that the "telnet" service is disabled in system boot configuration, run the following command:

# chkconfig "telnet" --list

Output should indicate the "telnet" service has either not been installed, or has been disabled at all runlevels, as shown in the example below:

# chkconfig "telnet" --list
"telnet" 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

Run the following command to verify "telnet" is disabled through current runtime configuration:

# service telnet status

If the service is disabled the command will return the following output:

telnet is stopped

If the service is running, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-RHEL-06-000208_fix)
The "telnet" service can be disabled with the following command: # chkconfig telnet off