SV-37444r1: The telnet daemon must not be running. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The telnet daemon must not be running.

Description

Discussion Text

The telnet daemon provides a typically unencrypted remote access service which does not provide for the confidentiality and integrity of user passwords or the remote session. If a privileged user were to log on using this service, the privileged user password could be compromised.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000197CCE-3390-2

Additional Details

Mitigations

GEN003850

Mitigation Control

If an enabled telnet daemon is configured to only allow encrypted sessions, such as with Kerberos or the use of encrypted network tunnels, the risk of exposing sensitive information is mitigated, and this is not a finding.

Responsibility

System Administrator

IA Controls

DCPP-1

References

DPMS Target Red Hat 5 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat 5 2154

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:272
# The telnet daemon must not be running.
# This rule's OVAL object type(s) aren't yet recognized as a curated
# Linux/Unix or Windows mechanism -- see the MANUAL REVIEW notes below.
#
# MANUAL REVIEW REQUIRED -- the module(s) below could not be reconstructed
# into working code from curated SCC reference data, and are excluded from
# the automated result:
#   - xinetd_object (xinetd_test) -- telnet not enabled: no curated SCC reference for xinetd_object

# xinetd.conf absent
# file_object (file_test)
test_1() {
  ! ( test -e '/etc/xinetd.conf' &>/dev/null )
}
# telnetd process not running
# process58_object (process58_test)
test_3() {
  ! ( ps -eo args | grep -P '^.*telnetd(\s.*)?$' &>/dev/null )
}

if ( test_1 && test_3 ); then
  echo "PASS (automated portion only -- MANUAL REVIEW still required, see notes above)"
else
  echo "FAIL (or see MANUAL REVIEW note above)"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:272

if [ ! -f "/etc/xinetd.conf" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ "$(grep -c "^service telnet" /etc/xinetd.conf)" -eq 0 ] && [ "$(ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep telnetd | wc -l)" -eq 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi

Remediation

Identify the telnet service running and disable it.

Procedure:

Disable the telnet server.
# chkconfig telnet off

Verify the telnet daemon is no longer running.
# ps -ef |grep telnet