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RHEL 9 must enable the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) interface for SSHD.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-257986 RHEL-09-255050 SV-257986r958510_rule High
Description
When UsePAM is set to "yes", PAM runs through account and session types properly. This is important when restricted access to services based off of IP, time, or other factors of the account is needed. Additionally, this ensures users can inherit certain environment variables on login or disallow access to the server.
STIG Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2024-06-04

Details

Check Text ( C-61727r952182_chk )
Verify the RHEL 9 SSHD is configured to allow for the UsePAM interface with the following command:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*usepam'

UsePAM yes

If the "UsePAM" keyword is set to "no", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-61651r925944_fix)
Configure the RHEL 9 SSHD to use the UsePAM interface add or modify the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config".

UsePAM yes

Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service