The telnet daemon must not be running.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-38589	RHEL-06-000211	SV-50390r2_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. Mitigation: If an enabled telnet daemon is configured to only allow encrypted sessions, such as with Kerberos or the use of encrypted network tunnels, the risk of exposing sensitive information is mitigated.

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. Mitigation: If an enabled telnet daemon is configured to only allow encrypted sessions, such as with Kerberos or the use of encrypted network tunnels, the risk of exposing sensitive information is mitigated.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-04-28

Details

Check Text ( None )
None

Fix Text (F-43537r1_fix)
The "telnet" service can be disabled with the following command: # chkconfig telnet off