The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system SSH server must be configured to use only FIPS-validated key exchange algorithms.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-255925	RHEL-07-040712	SV-255925r880749_rule		Medium

Description
The use of FIPS-validated cryptographic algorithms is enforced by enabling kernel FIPS mode. In the event that kernel FIPS mode is disabled, the use of nonvalidated cryptographic algorithms will be permitted systemwide. The SSH server configuration must manually define only FIPS-validated key exchange algorithms to prevent the use of nonvalidated algorithms.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-12-06

Details

Check Text ( C-59602r880747_chk )

Verify that the SSH server is configured to use only FIPS-validated key exchange algorithms: $ sudo grep -i kexalgorithms /etc/ssh/sshd_config KexAlgorithms ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256 If "KexAlgorithms" is not configured, is commented out, or does not contain only the algorithms "ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256" in exact order, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-59545r880748_fix)
Configure the SSH server to use only FIPS-validated key exchange algorithms by adding or modifying the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config": KexAlgorithms ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256 Restart the "sshd" service for changes to take effect: $ sudo systemctl restart sshd