The Photon operating system must be configured to protect the SSH private host key from unauthorized access.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-239187	PHTN-67-000116	SV-239187r675369_rule		Medium

Description
If an unauthorized user obtains the private SSH host key file, the host could be impersonated.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 6.7 Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-09-27

Details

Check Text ( C-42398r675367_chk )
At the command line, execute the following command: # stat -c "%n permissions are %a and owned by %U:%G" /etc/ssh/*key Expected result: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-42398r675367_chk )

At the command line, execute the following command:

# stat -c "%n permissions are %a and owned by %U:%G" /etc/ssh/*key

Expected result:

/etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key permissions are 600 and owned by root:root

If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-42357r675368_fix)
At the command line, execute the following commands for each returned file: # chmod 600 # chown root:root