SV-281219r1273594: RHEL 10 must be configured to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication by ensuring that the pam_unix.so module is configured in the "system-auth" file. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

RHEL 10 must be configured to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication by ensuring that the pam_unix.so module is configured in the "system-auth" file.

Description

Discussion Text

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied on to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoW data may be compromised. RHEL 10 systems using encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules. FIPS 140-3 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules use authentication that meets DoW requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general-purpose computing system. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041, SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-004062Not mappedCCI-000803

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 5733

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.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel10os:def:281219
# RHEL 10 must be configured to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication by ensuring that the pam_unix.so module is configured in the "system-auth" file.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# /etc/pam.d/system-auth:password includes pam_unix.so sha512
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  grep -Pq '^[ \t]*password[ \t]+sufficient[ \t]+pam_unix\.so(?:[ \t]+|(?:[ \t][^#\r\f\n]+[ \t]))sha512(?:[ \t]|$)' '/etc/pam.d/system-auth' &>/dev/null
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
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:mil.disa.stig.rhel10os:def:281219
if [ ! -f "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if grep -q "^[ \t]*password[ \t]+sufficient[ \t]+pam_unix\\.so[ \t]+sha512[ \t]*$" /etc/pam.d/system-auth; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi

Remediation

Configure RHEL 10 to use a FIPS 140-3-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" via the "pam_unix.so" module.

Edit/modify the following line in the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file to include the sha512 option for pam_unix.so:

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512