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

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258896	PHTN-40-000234	SV-258896r933749_rule		Medium

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

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62636r933747_chk )
At the command line, run the following command: # stat -c "%n permissions are %a and owned by %U:%G" /etc/ssh/*key Example 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 any key file listed is not owned by root or not group owned by root or does not have permissions of "0600", this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-62636r933747_chk )

At the command line, run the following command:

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

Example 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 any key file listed is not owned by root or not group owned by root or does not have permissions of "0600", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62545r933748_fix)
At the command line, run the following commands for each returned file: # chmod 600 # chown root:root # systemctl restart sshd.service