The SSH daemon must be configured to only use FIPS 140-2 approved ciphers.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
GEN005505-ESXI5-000097	GEN005505-ESXI5-000097	GEN005505-ESXI5-000097_rule		Medium

Description
DoD information systems are required to use FIPS 140-2 approved ciphers. SSHv2 ciphers meeting this requirement are 3DES and AES.

STIG	Date
VMware ESXi v5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-01-15

Details

Check Text ( C-GEN005505-ESXI5-000097_chk )
Disable lock down mode. Enable the ESXi Shell. Check the SSH daemon configuration for allowed ciphers (example: 3des-ctr, aes128-ctr, aes192-ctr, aes256-ctr) . # grep -i ciphers /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep -v '^#' Re-enable lock down mode. If no lines are returned, or the returned ciphers list contains any cipher not starting with 3des or aes, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-GEN005505-ESXI5-000097_fix)
Disable lock down mode. Enable the ESXi Shell. Edit the SSH daemon configuration and add/modify the "Ciphers" configuration (example: 3des-ctr, aes128-ctr, aes192-ctr, aes256-ctr). # vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config Re-enable lock down mode.