All SLEM 5 local interactive user home directories must be group-owned by the home directory owner's primary group. (V-261305) — SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro (SLEM) 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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CurrentPublished Wed Apr 01 2026

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Severity

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V-261263

high

A SLEM 5 release is considered supported if the vendor continues to provide security patches for the product. With an unsupported release, it will not be possible to resolve security issues discovered in the system software.

End Of Life dates for SUSE Linux Micro releases are as follows:
Service Pack Release   Release Date   General Support Ends
SUSE Linux Micro 5.0   30 Mar 2021      31 Mar 2022
SUSE Linux Micro 5.1   26 Oct 2021      31 Oct 2025
SUSE Linux Micro 5.2   14 Apr 2022      30 Apr 2026
SUSE Linux Micro 5.3   25 Oct 2022      30 Oct 2026
SUSE Linux Micro 5.4   20 Apr 2023      30 Apr 2027
SUSE Linux Micro 5.5   12 Oct 2023      31 Oct 2027
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0   06 Jun 2024      30 Jun 2028
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1   26 Nov 2024      30 Nov 2028

V-261265

medium

Display of a standardized and approved use notification before granting access to SLEM 5 ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance.

System use notifications are required only for access via logon interfaces with human users and are not required when such human interfaces do not exist.

The banner must be formatted in accordance with applicable DOD policy. Use the following verbiage for SLEM 5 that can accommodate banners of 1300 characters:

"You are accessing a U.S. Government (USG) Information System (IS) that is provided for USG-authorized use only.

By using this IS (which includes any device attached to this IS), you consent to the following conditions:

-The USG routinely intercepts and monitors communications on this IS for purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, COMSEC monitoring, network operations and defense, personnel misconduct (PM), law enforcement (LE), and counterintelligence (CI) investigations.

-At any time, the USG may inspect and seize data stored on this IS.

-Communications using, or data stored on, this IS are not private, are subject to routine monitoring, interception, and search, and may be disclosed or used for any USG-authorized purpose.

-This IS includes security measures (e.g., authentication and access controls) to protect USG interests--not for your personal benefit or privacy.

-Notwithstanding the above, using this IS does not constitute consent to PM, LE or CI investigative searching or monitoring of the content of privileged communications, or work product, related to personal representation or services by attorneys, psychotherapists, or clergy, and their assistants. Such communications and work product are private and confidential. See User Agreement for details."

V-261266

high

A locally logged-on user who presses Ctrl-Alt-Delete when at the console can reboot the system. If accidentally pressed, as could happen in the case of a mixed OS environment, this can create the risk of short-term loss of availability of systems due to unintentional reboot. In the graphical user interface environment, risk of unintentional reboot from the Ctrl-Alt-Delete sequence is reduced because the user will be prompted before any action is taken.

V-261267

high

To mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information by entities that have been issued certificates by DOD-approved PKIs, all DOD systems (e.g., web servers and web portals) must be properly configured to incorporate access control methods that do not rely solely on the possession of a certificate for access. Successful authentication must not automatically give an entity access to an asset or security boundary. Authorization procedures and controls must be implemented to ensure each authenticated entity also has a validated and current authorization. Authorization is the process of determining whether an entity, once authenticated, is permitted to access a specific asset. Information systems use access control policies and enforcement mechanisms to implement this requirement.

Access control policies include identity-based policies, role-based policies, and attribute-based policies. Access enforcement mechanisms include access control lists, access control matrices, and cryptography. These policies and mechanisms must be employed by the application to control access between users (or processes acting on behalf of users) and objects (e.g., devices, files, records, processes, programs, and domains) in the information system.

V-261268

high

If the system allows a user to boot into single-user or maintenance mode without authentication, any user that invokes single-user or maintenance mode is granted privileged access to all system information.

V-261269

medium

Restricting access to the kernel message buffer limits access only to root. This prevents attackers from gaining additional system information as a nonprivileged user.

V-261270

medium

Kernel core dumps may contain the full contents of system memory at the time of the crash. Kernel core dumps may consume a considerable amount of disk space and may result in denial of service (DoS) by exhausting the available space on the target file system partition.

V-261271

medium

Some adversaries launch attacks with the intent of executing code in nonexecutable regions of memory or in memory locations that are prohibited. Security safeguards employed to protect memory include, for example, data execution prevention and address space layout randomization. Data execution prevention safeguards can either be hardware enforced or software enforced, with hardware providing the greater strength of mechanism.

Examples of attacks are buffer overflow attacks.

V-261272

medium

V-261273

medium

Timely patching is critical for maintaining the operational availability, confidentiality, and integrity of information technology (IT) systems. However, failure to keep SLEM 5 and application software patched is a common mistake made by IT professionals. New patches are released frequently, and it is often difficult for even experienced system administrators (SAs) to keep up with of all the new patches. When new weaknesses in a SLEM 5 exist, patches are usually made available by the vendor to resolve the problems. If the most recent security patches and updates are not installed, unauthorized users may take advantage of weaknesses in the unpatched software. The lack of prompt attention to patching could result in a system compromise.

V-261274

high

Changes to any software components can have significant effects on the overall security of SLEM 5. This requirement ensures the software has not been tampered with and has been provided by a trusted vendor.

Accordingly, patches, service packs, device drivers, or SLEM 5 components must be signed with a certificate recognized and approved by the organization.

Verifying the authenticity of the software prior to installation validates the integrity of the patch or upgrade received from a vendor. This ensures the software has not been tampered with and that it has been provided by a trusted vendor. Self-signed certificates are disallowed by this requirement. SLEM 5 should not have to verify the software again. This requirement does not mandate DOD certificates for this purpose; however, the certificate used to verify the software must be from an approved Certification Authority (CA).

For zypper on SUSE Linux Enterprise systems, GPG signature checking is enabled by default for all repositories, even if it's not explicitly set in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf or individual .repo files. The presence of the gpgcheck setting in repository files (like gpgcheck=1) or a global zypp.conf entry would override this default behavior if the user wanted to disable it (e.g., gpgcheck=0), but its absence simply means the default is in effect.

V-261275

medium

Previous versions of software components that are not removed from the information system after updates have been installed may be exploited by adversaries. Some information technology products may remove older versions of software automatically from the information system.

V-261276

medium

A session lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not want to log out because of the temporary nature of the absence.

The session lock is implemented at the point where session activity can be determined.

Regardless of where the session lock is determined and implemented, once invoked, the session lock must remain in place until the user reauthenticates. No other activity aside from reauthentication must unlock the system.

V-261277

high

It is detrimental for SLEM 5 to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. These unnecessary capabilities or services are often overlooked, and therefore may remain unsecured. They increase the risk to the platform by providing additional attack vectors.

SLEM 5 is capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions and functions).

Examples of nonessential capabilities include but are not limited to games, software packages, tools, and demonstration software not related to requirements or providing a wide array of functionality not required for every mission but which cannot be disabled.

V-261278

medium

The use of separate file systems for different paths can protect the system from failures resulting from a file system becoming full or failing.

V-261279

medium

The use of separate file systems for different paths can protect the system from failures resulting from a file system becoming full or failing.

V-261280

medium

The use of separate file systems for different paths can protect the system from failures resulting from a file system becoming full or failing.

V-261281

medium

The "nosuid" mount option causes the system to not execute "setuid" and "setgid" files with owner privileges. This option must be used for mounting any file system not containing approved "setuid" and "setguid" files. Executing files from untrusted file systems increases the opportunity for unprivileged users to attain unauthorized administrative access.

V-261282

medium

The "noexec" mount option causes the system to not execute binary files. This option must be used for mounting any file system not containing approved binary files, as they may be incompatible. Executing files from untrusted file systems increases the opportunity for unprivileged users to attain unauthorized administrative access.

V-261283

medium

V-261284

high

SLEM 5 handling data requiring data-at-rest protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure and modification of the information at rest.

Selection of a cryptographic mechanism is based on the need to protect the integrity of organizational information. The strength of the mechanism is commensurate with the security category and/or classification of the information. Organizations have the flexibility to either encrypt all information on storage devices (i.e., full disk encryption) or encrypt specific data structures (e.g., files, records, or fields).

V-261285

medium

The "nosuid" mount option causes the system to not execute setuid and setgid files with owner privileges. This option must be used for mounting any file system not containing approved setuid and setguid files. Executing files from untrusted file systems increases the opportunity for unprivileged users to attain unauthorized administrative access.

V-261286

medium

Automatically mounting file systems permits easy introduction of unknown devices, thereby facilitating malicious activity.

V-261287

medium

If SLEM 5 were to allow any user to make changes to software libraries, then those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part of a robust change management process.

This requirement applies to SLEM 5 with software libraries that are accessible and configurable, as in the case of interpreted languages. Software libraries also include privileged programs which execute with escalated privileges. Only qualified and authorized individuals must be allowed to obtain access to information system components for purposes of initiating changes, including upgrades and modifications.

V-261288

medium

V-261289

medium

V-261290

medium

V-261291

medium

Excessive permissions on local interactive user home directories may allow unauthorized access to user files by other users.

V-261292

medium

Local initialization files are used to configure the user's shell environment upon logon. Malicious modification of these files could compromise accounts upon logon.

V-261293

medium

If a public host key file is modified by an unauthorized user, the SSH service may be compromised.

V-261294

medium

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

V-261295

medium

V-261296

medium

V-261297

medium

V-261298

medium

V-261299

medium

V-261300

medium

V-261301

medium

V-261302

medium

V-261303

medium

Unowned files and directories may be unintentionally inherited if a user is assigned the same User Identifier (UID) as the UID of the unowned files.

V-261304

medium

Files without a valid group owner may be unintentionally inherited if a group is assigned the same Group Identifier (GID) as the GID of the files without a valid group owner.

V-261305

medium

If the Group Identifier (GID) of a local interactive user's home directory is not the same as the primary GID of the user, this would allow unauthorized access to the user's files, and users that share the same group may not be able to access files that they legitimately should.

V-261306

medium

If a world-writable directory has the sticky bit set and is not group-owned by a privileged Group Identifier (GID), unauthorized users may be able to modify files created by others.

The only authorized public directories are those temporary directories supplied with the system or those designed to be temporary file repositories. The setting is normally reserved for directories used by the system and by users for temporary file storage, (e.g., /tmp), and for directories requiring global read/write access.

V-261307

medium

Preventing unauthorized information transfers mitigates the risk of information, including encrypted representations of information, produced by the actions of prior users/roles (or the actions of processes acting on behalf of prior users/roles) from being available to any current users/roles (or current processes) that obtain access to shared system resources (e.g., registers, main memory, and hard disks) after those resources have been released back to information systems. The control of information in shared resources is also commonly referred to as object reuse and residual information protection.

This requirement generally applies to the design of an information technology product, but it can also apply to the configuration of particular information system components that are, or use, such products. This can be verified by acceptance/validation processes in DOD or other government agencies.

There may be shared resources with configurable protections (e.g., files in storage) that may be assessed on specific information system components.

V-261308

medium

Only authorized personnel should be aware of errors and the details of the errors. Error messages are an indicator of an organization's operational state or can identify SLEM 5 or platform. Additionally, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and operational information must not be revealed through error messages to unauthorized personnel or their designated representatives.

The structure and content of error messages must be carefully considered by the organization and development team. The extent to which the information system is able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements.

V-261309

medium

Any operating system providing too much information in error messages risks compromising the data and security of the structure, and content of error messages needs to be carefully considered by the organization.

Organizations carefully consider the structure/content of error messages. The extent to which information systems are able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements. Information that could be exploited by adversaries includes, for example, erroneous logon attempts with passwords entered by mistake as the username, mission/business information that can be derived from (if not stated explicitly by) information recorded, and personal information, such as account numbers, social security numbers, and credit card numbers.

The /var/log/btmp, /var/log/wtmp, and /var/log/lastlog files have group write and global read permissions to allow for the lastlog function to perform. Limiting the permissions beyond this configuration will result in the failure of functions that rely on the lastlog database.

V-261310

medium

To prevent unauthorized connection of devices, unauthorized transfer of information, or unauthorized tunneling (i.e., embedding of data types within data types), organizations must disable or restrict unused or unnecessary physical and logical ports/protocols on information systems.

Additionally, operating system remote access functionality must have the capability to immediately disconnect current users remotely accessing the information system and/or disable further remote access. The speed of disconnect or disablement varies based on the criticality of mission functions and the need to eliminate immediate or future remote access to organizational information systems.

V-261311

medium

Inaccurate time stamps make it more difficult to correlate events and can lead to an inaccurate analysis. Determining the correct time a particular event occurred on a system is critical when conducting forensic analysis and investigating system events. Sources outside the configured acceptable allowance (drift) may be inaccurate.

Synchronizing internal information system clocks provides uniformity of time stamps for information systems with multiple system clocks and systems connected over a network.

Organizations should consider endpoints that may not have regular access to the authoritative time server (e.g., mobile, teleworking, and tactical endpoints).

V-261312

medium

Network interfaces in promiscuous mode allow for the capture of all network traffic visible to the system. If unauthorized individuals can access these applications, it may allow then to collect information such as logon IDs, passwords, and key exchanges between systems.

If the system is being used to perform a network troubleshooting function, the use of these tools must be documented with the information system security officer (ISSO) and restricted to only authorized personnel.

V-261313

medium

Source-routed packets allow the source of the packet to suggest that routers forward the packet along a different path than configured on the router, which can be used to bypass network security measures. This requirement applies only to the forwarding of source-routed traffic, such as when IPv4/IPv6 forwarding is enabled and the system is functioning as a router.

V-261314

medium

Source-routed packets allow the source of the packet to suggest that routers forward the packet along a different path than configured on the router, which can be used to bypass network security measures. This requirement applies only to the forwarding of source-routed traffic, such as when IPv4 forwarding is enabled and the system is functioning as a router.

V-261315

medium

ICMP redirect messages are used by routers to inform hosts that a more direct route exists for a particular destination. These messages modify the host's route table and are unauthenticated. An illicit ICMP redirect message could result in a man-in-the-middle attack.

V-261316

medium

V-261317

medium

ICMP redirect messages are used by routers to inform hosts that a more direct route exists for a particular destination. These messages contain information from the system's route table, possibly revealing portions of the network topology.

V-261318

medium

V-261319

medium

Routing protocol daemons are typically used on routers to exchange network topology information with other routers. If this software is used when not required, system network information may be unnecessarily transmitted across the network.

V-261320

medium

Denial of service (DoS) is a condition in which a resource is not available for legitimate users. When this occurs, the organization either cannot accomplish its mission or must operate at degraded capacity.

Managing excess capacity ensures that sufficient capacity is available to counter flooding attacks. Employing increased capacity and service redundancy may reduce the susceptibility to some DoS attacks. Managing excess capacity may include, for example, establishing selected usage priorities, quotas, or partitioning.

V-261321

medium

Source-routed packets allow the source of the packet to suggest that routers forward the packet along a different path than configured on the router, which can be used to bypass network security measures. This requirement applies only to the forwarding of source-routed traffic, such as when IPv4 forwarding is enabled and the system is functioning as a router.

V-261322

medium

Source-routed packets allow the source of the packet to suggest that routers forward the packet along a different path than configured on the router, which can be used to bypass network security measures. This requirement applies only to the forwarding of source-routed traffic, such as when IPv4 forwarding is enabled and the system is functioning as a router.

V-261323

medium

V-261324

medium

V-261325

medium

V-261326

medium

V-261327

high

Without protection of the transmitted information, confidentiality and integrity may be compromised because unprotected communications can be intercepted and either read or altered.

This requirement applies to both internal and external networks and all types of information system components from which information can be transmitted (e.g., servers, mobile devices, notebook computers, printers, copiers, scanners, and facsimile machines). Communication paths outside the physical protection of a controlled boundary are exposed to the possibility of interception and modification.

Protecting the confidentiality and integrity of organizational information can be accomplished by physical means (e.g., employing physical distribution systems) or by logical means (e.g., employing cryptographic techniques). If physical means of protection are employed, logical means (cryptography) do not have to be employed, and vice versa.

V-261328

high

V-261329

medium

Display of a standardized and approved use notification before granting access to SLEM 5 ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance.

System use notifications are required only for access via logon interfaces with human users and are not required when such human interfaces do not exist.

Because SLEM 5 employs an immutable architecture and "/etc/issue" is a system file, the banner must be stored in a different location. In this example, the location is "/etc/ssh/dod_banner", but any nonsystem location is acceptable.

The banner must be formatted in accordance with applicable DOD policy. Use the following verbiage for SLEM 5 that can accommodate banners of 1300 characters:

"You are accessing a U.S. Government (USG) Information System (IS) that is provided for USG-authorized use only.

By using this IS (which includes any device attached to this IS), you consent to the following conditions:

-The USG routinely intercepts and monitors communications on this IS for purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, COMSEC monitoring, network operations and defense, personnel misconduct (PM), law enforcement (LE), and counterintelligence (CI) investigations.

-At any time, the USG may inspect and seize data stored on this IS.

-Communications using, or data stored on, this IS are not private, are subject to routine monitoring, interception, and search, and may be disclosed or used for any USG-authorized purpose.

-This IS includes security measures (e.g., authentication and access controls) to protect USG interests--not for your personal benefit or privacy.

-Notwithstanding the above, using this IS does not constitute consent to PM, LE or CI investigative searching or monitoring of the content of privileged communications, or work product, related to personal representation or services by attorneys, psychotherapists, or clergy, and their assistants. Such communications and work product are private and confidential. See User Agreement for details."

V-261330

high

Failure to restrict system access via SSH to authenticated users negatively impacts SLEM 5 security.

V-261331

medium

Terminating an unresponsive SSH session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle SSH session will also free up resources committed by the managed network element.

Terminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, deallocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level and deallocating networking assignments at the application level if multiple application sessions are using a single operating system-level network connection. This does not mean the operating system terminates all sessions or network access; it only ends the unresponsive session and releases the resources associated with that session.

V-261332

medium

Terminating an unresponsive SSH session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle SSH session will also free up resources committed by the managed network element.

Terminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, deallocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level and deallocating networking assignments at the application level if multiple application sessions are using a single operating system-level network connection. This does not mean that the operating system terminates all sessions or network access; it only ends the unresponsive session and releases the resources associated with that session.

V-261333

medium

The security risk of using X11 forwarding is that the client's X11 display server may be exposed to attack when the SSH client requests forwarding. A system administrator may have a stance in which they want to protect clients that may expose themselves to attack by unwittingly requesting X11 forwarding, which can warrant a ''no'' setting.

X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution. Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host (for the user's X11 authorization database) can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection. An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring if the ForwardX11Trusted option is also enabled.

If X11 services are not required for the system's intended function, they should be disabled or restricted as appropriate to the system's needs.

V-261334

high

Without confidentiality protection mechanisms, unauthorized individuals may gain access to sensitive information via a remote access session.

Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, nonorganization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless.

Encryption provides a means to secure the remote connection to prevent unauthorized access to the data traversing the remote access connection (e.g., RDP), thereby providing a degree of confidentiality. The encryption strength of a mechanism is selected based on the security categorization of the information.

The system will attempt to use the first cipher presented by the client that matches the server list. Listing the values "strongest to weakest" is a method to ensure the use of the strongest cipher available to secure the SSH connection.

V-261335

high

Without cryptographic integrity protections, information can be altered by unauthorized users without detection.

Remote access (e.g., RDP) is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, nonorganization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless.

Cryptographic mechanisms used for protecting the integrity of information include, for example, signed hash functions using asymmetric cryptography enabling distribution of the public key to verify the hash information while maintaining the confidentiality of the secret key used to generate the hash.

The system will attempt to use the first hash presented by the client that matches the server list. Listing the values "strongest to weakest" is a method to ensure the use of the strongest hash available to secure the SSH connection.

V-261336

high

Without cryptographic integrity protections provided by FIPS 140-2/140-3 validated cryptographic algorithms, information can be viewed and altered by unauthorized users without detection.

The system will attempt to use the first algorithm presented by the client that matches the server list. Listing the values "strongest to weakest" is a method to ensure the use of the strongest algorithm available to secure the SSH connection.

V-261337

medium

To ensure individual accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be individually identified and authenticated.

A group authenticator is a generic account used by multiple individuals. Use of a group authenticator alone does not uniquely identify individual users. Examples of the group authenticator is the Unix OS "root" user account, the Windows "Administrator" account, the "sa" account, or a "helpdesk" account.

For example, the Unix and Windows SLEM 5 offer a "switch user" capability, allowing users to authenticate with their individual credentials and, when needed, "switch" to the administrator role. This method provides for unique individual authentication prior to using a group authenticator.

Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) need to be uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on SLEM 5 without identification or authentication.

Requiring individuals to be authenticated with an individual authenticator prior to using a group authenticator allows for traceability of actions, as well as adding an additional level of protection of the actions that can be taken with group account knowledge.

V-261338

medium

Remote access services, such as those providing remote access to network devices and information systems, which lack automated monitoring capabilities, increase risk and make remote user access management difficult at best.

Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, nonorganization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless.

Automated monitoring of remote access sessions allows organizations to detect cyberattacks and also ensure ongoing compliance with remote access policies by auditing connection activities of remote access capabilities, such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), on a variety of information system components (e.g., servers, workstations, notebook computers, smartphones, and tablets).

V-261339

medium

Providing users with feedback on when account accesses via SSH last occurred facilitates user recognition and reporting of unauthorized account use.

V-261340

medium

Configuring this setting for the SSH daemon provides additional assurance that remote logon via SSH will require a password, even in the event of misconfiguration elsewhere.

V-261341

medium

If other users have access to modify user-specific SSH configuration files, they may be able to log on to the system as another user.

V-261342

medium

If the private key is discovered, an attacker can use the key to authenticate as an authorized user and gain access to the network infrastructure.

The cornerstone of the PKI is the private key used to encrypt or digitally sign information.

If the private key is stolen, this will lead to the compromise of the authentication and nonrepudiation gained through PKI because the attacker can use the private key to digitally sign documents and pretend to be the authorized user.

Both the holders of a digital certificate and the issuing authority must protect the computers, storage devices, or whatever they use to keep the private keys.

V-261343

high

The .shosts files are used to configure host-based authentication for individual users or the system via SSH. Host-based authentication is not sufficient for preventing unauthorized access to the system as it does not require interactive identification and authentication of a connection request or for the use of two-factor authentication.

V-261344

high

The shosts.equiv files are used to configure host-based authentication for the system via SSH. Host-based authentication is not sufficient for preventing unauthorized access to the system, as it does not require interactive identification and authentication of a connection request, or for the use of two-factor authentication.

V-261345

high

Failure to restrict system access to authenticated users negatively impacts SLEM 5 security.

V-261346

medium

Without protection of communications with wireless peripherals, confidentiality and integrity may be compromised because unprotected communications can be intercepted and either read, altered, or used to compromise SLEM 5.

This requirement applies to wireless peripheral technologies (e.g., wireless mice, keyboards, displays, etc.) used with a SLEM 5. Wireless peripherals (e.g., Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/IR keyboards, mice, pointing devices, and Near Field Communications [NFC]) present a unique challenge by creating an open, unsecured port on a computer. Wireless peripherals must meet DOD requirements for wireless data transmission and be approved for use by the AO. Even though some wireless peripherals, such as mice and pointing devices, do not ordinarily carry information that need to be protected, modification of communications with these wireless peripherals may be used to compromise SLEM 5. Communication paths outside the physical protection of a controlled boundary are exposed to the possibility of interception and modification.

Protecting the confidentiality and integrity of communications with wireless peripherals can be accomplished by physical means (e.g., employing physical barriers to wireless radio frequencies) or by logical means (e.g., employing cryptographic techniques). If physical means of protection are employed, then logical means (cryptography) do not have to be employed, and vice versa. If the wireless peripheral is only passing telemetry data, encryption of the data may not be required.

V-261347

medium

Without identifying devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity.

Peripherals include but are not limited to such devices as flash drives, external storage, and printers.

V-261348

medium

If local interactive users are not assigned a valid home directory, there is no place for the storage and control of files they should own.

V-261349

medium

Setting the most restrictive default permissions ensures that when new accounts are created, they do not have unnecessary access.

V-261350

medium

Limiting the number of logon attempts over a certain time interval reduces the chances that an unauthorized user may gain access to an account.

V-261351

medium

If local interactive users are not assigned a valid home directory, there is no place for the storage and control of files they should own.

V-261352

medium

If a local interactive user has a home directory defined that does not exist, the user may be given access to the / directory as the current working directory upon logon. This could create a denial of service (DoS) because the user would not be able to access their logon configuration files, and it may give them visibility to system files they normally would not be able to access.

V-261353

medium

The executable search path (typically the PATH environment variable) contains a list of directories for the shell to search to find executables. If this path includes the current working directory (other than the user's home directory), executables in these directories may be executed instead of system commands. This variable is formatted as a colon-separated list of directories. If there is an empty entry, such as a leading or trailing colon or two consecutive colons, this is interpreted as the current working directory. If deviations from the default system search path for the local interactive user are required, they must be documented with the information system security officer (ISSO).

V-261354

medium

If user start-up files execute world-writable programs, especially in unprotected directories, they could be maliciously modified to destroy user files or otherwise compromise the system at the user level. If the system is compromised at the user level, it is easier to elevate privileges to eventually compromise the system at the root and network level.

V-261355

medium

Temporary accounts are privileged or nonprivileged accounts established during pressing circumstances, such as new software or hardware configuration or an incident response, where the need for prompt account activation requires bypassing normal account authorization procedures. If any inactive temporary accounts are left enabled on the system and are not either manually removed or automatically expired within 72 hours, the security posture of the system will be degraded and exposed to exploitation by unauthorized users or insider threat actors.

Temporary accounts are different from emergency accounts. Emergency accounts, also known as "last resort" or "break glass" accounts, are local logon accounts enabled on the system for emergency use by authorized system administrators to manage a system when standard logon methods are failing or not available. Emergency accounts are not subject to manual removal or scheduled expiration requirements.

The automatic expiration of temporary accounts may be extended as needed by the circumstances, but it must not be extended indefinitely. A documented permanent account should be established for privileged users who need long-term maintenance accounts.

V-261356

medium

Emergency administrator accounts, also known as "last resort" or "break glass" accounts, are local logon accounts enabled on the system for emergency use by authorized system administrators to manage a system when standard logon methods are failing or not available. Emergency accounts are not subject to manual removal or scheduled expiration requirements.

V-261357

medium

Accounts providing no operational purpose provide additional opportunities for system compromise. Unnecessary accounts include user accounts for individuals not requiring access to the system and application accounts for applications not installed on the system.

V-261358

medium

Accounts providing no operational purpose provide additional opportunities for system compromise. Therefore all necessary noninteractive accounts should not have an interactive shell assigned to them.

V-261359

high

If an account other than root also has a User Identifier (UID) of "0", it has root authority, giving that account unrestricted access to the entire SLEM 5. Multiple accounts with a UID of "0" afford an opportunity for potential intruders to guess a password for a privileged account.

V-261360

medium

Inactive identifiers pose a risk to systems and applications because attackers may exploit an inactive identifier and potentially obtain undetected access to the system. Owners of inactive accounts will not notice if unauthorized access to their user account has been obtained.

SLEM 5 must track periods of inactivity and disable application identifiers after 35 days of inactivity.

V-261361

medium

To ensure accountability and prevent unauthenticated access, interactive users must be identified and authenticated to prevent potential misuse and compromise of the system.

Interactive users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors). Interactive users (and processes acting on behalf of users) must be uniquely identified and authenticated to all accesses, except for the following:

1) Accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization. Organizations document specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication; and

2) Accesses that occur through authorized use of group authenticators without individual authentication. Organizations may require unique identification of individuals in group accounts (e.g., shared privilege accounts) or for detailed accountability of individual activity.

V-261363

medium

A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not log out because of the temporary nature of the absence.

Rather than relying on the users to manually lock their SLEM 5 session prior to vacating the vicinity, SLEM 5 needs to be able to identify when a user's session has idled and take action to initiate the session lock.

The session lock is implemented at the point where session activity can be determined and/or controlled.

V-261364

medium

By limiting the number of failed access attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.

The pam_tally2.so module maintains a count of attempted accesses. This includes username entry into a logon field as well as password entry. With counting access attempts, it is possible to lock an account without presenting a password into the password field. This should be taken into consideration as it poses as an avenue for denial of service (DoS).

V-261365

medium

Limiting the number of logon attempts over a certain time interval reduces the chances that an unauthorized user may gain access to an account.

V-261367

low

SLEM 5 management includes the ability to control the number of users and user sessions that use a SLEM 5. Limiting the number of allowed users and sessions per user is helpful in reducing the risks related to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

This requirement addresses concurrent sessions for information system accounts and does not address concurrent sessions by single users via multiple system accounts. The maximum number of concurrent sessions should be defined based on mission needs and the operational environment for each system.

V-261368

low

Without verification of the security functions, security functions may not operate correctly and the failure may go unnoticed. Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the information system responsible for enforcing the system security policy and supporting the isolation of code and data on which the protection is based. Security functionality includes, but is not limited to, establishing system accounts, configuring access authorizations (i.e., permissions, privileges), setting events to be audited, and setting intrusion detection parameters.

Policycoreutils contains the policy core utilities that are required for basic operation of an SELinux-enabled system. These utilities include load_policy to load SELinux policies, setfile to label filesystems, newrole to switch roles, and run_init to run /etc/init.d scripts in the proper context.

V-261369

high

Without verification of the security functions, security functions may not operate correctly and the failure may go unnoticed. Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the information system responsible for enforcing the system security policy and supporting the isolation of code and data on which the protection is based. Security functionality includes, but is not limited to, establishing system accounts, configuring access authorizations (i.e., permissions, privileges), setting events to be audited, and setting intrusion detection parameters.

This requirement applies to operating systems performing security function verification/testing and/or systems and environments that require this functionality.

V-261370

medium

Without verification of the security functions, security functions may not operate correctly and the failure may go unnoticed. Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the information system responsible for enforcing the system security policy and supporting the isolation of code and data on which the protection is based. Security functionality includes, but is not limited to, establishing system accounts, configuring access authorizations (i.e., permissions, privileges), setting events to be audited, and setting intrusion detection parameters.

This requirement applies to operating systems performing security function verification/testing and/or systems and environments that require this functionality.

V-261371

medium

Preventing nonprivileged users from executing privileged functions mitigates the risk that unauthorized individuals or processes may gain unnecessary access to information or privileges.

Privileged functions include, for example, establishing accounts, performing system integrity checks, or administering cryptographic key management activities. Nonprivileged users are individuals who do not possess appropriate authorizations. Circumventing intrusion detection and prevention mechanisms or malicious code protection mechanisms are examples of privileged functions that require protection from nonprivileged users.

V-261372

medium

The sudoers security policy requires that users authenticate themselves before they can use sudo. When sudoers requires authentication, it validates the invoking user's credentials. If the rootpw, targetpw, or runaspw flags are defined and not disabled, by default the operating system will prompt the invoking user for the "root" user password.

For more information on each of the listed configurations, reference the sudoers(5) manual page.

V-261373

medium

Without reauthentication, users may access resources or perform tasks for which they do not have authorization.

When SLEM 5 provides the capability to change user authenticators, change security roles, or escalate a functional capability, it is critical the user reauthenticate.

V-261374

medium

Without reauthentication, users may access resources or perform tasks for which they do not have authorization.

When operating systems provide the capability to escalate a functional capability, it is critical the organization requires the user to reauthenticate when using the "sudo" command.

If the value is set to an integer less than 0, the user's time stamp will not expire and the user will not have to reauthenticate for privileged actions until the user's session is terminated.

V-261375

medium

The sudo command allows a user to execute programs with elevated (administrator) privileges. It prompts the user for their password and confirms the request to execute a command by checking a file, called sudoers. If the "sudoers" file is not configured correctly, any user defined on the system can initiate privileged actions on the target system.

V-261376

medium

The "sudo" command allows authorized users to run programs (including shells) as other users, system users, and root. The "/etc/sudoers" file is used to configure authorized "sudo" users as well as the programs they are allowed to run. Some configuration options in the "/etc/sudoers" file allow configured users to run programs without reauthenticating. Use of these configuration options makes it easier for one compromised account to be used to compromise other accounts.

It is possible to include other sudoers files from within the sudoers file currently being parsed using the @include and @includedir directives. For compatibility with sudo versions prior to 1.9.1, #include and #includedir are also accepted. When sudo reaches this line it will suspend processing of the current file (/etc/sudoers) and switch to the specified file/directory. Once the end of the included file(s) is reached, the rest of /etc/sudoers will be processed. Files that are included may themselves include other files. A hard limit of 128 nested include files is enforced to prevent include file loops.

V-261377

medium

Use of a complex password helps increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.

Password complexity is one factor of several that determines how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

V-261378

medium

V-261379

medium

V-261380

medium

Use of a complex password helps increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity or strength is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.

Password complexity is one factor in determining how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Special characters are not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *.

V-261381

medium

If SLEM 5 allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the opportunity for successful guesses and brute-force attacks.

V-261382

medium

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

V-261383

medium

If SLEM 5 allows the user to consecutively reuse extensive portions of passwords, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the window of opportunity for attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.

V-261384

medium

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. If the information system or application allows the user to consecutively reuse their password when that password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the end result is a password that is not changed as per policy requirements.

V-261385

medium

Passwords need to be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily compromised.

V-261386

high

V-261387

high

If an account has an empty password, anyone could log on and run commands with the privileges of that account. Accounts with empty passwords should never be used in operational environments.

V-261388

medium

Enforcing a minimum password lifetime helps prevent repeated password changes to defeat the password reuse or history enforcement requirement. If users are allowed to immediately and continually change their password, the password could be repeatedly changed in a short period of time to defeat the organization's policy regarding password reuse.

V-261389

medium

Any password, no matter how complex, can eventually be cracked. Therefore, passwords need to be changed periodically. If SLEM 5 does not limit the lifetime of passwords and force users to change their passwords, there is the risk that SLEM 5 passwords could be compromised.

V-261390

medium

V-261391

high

The system must use a strong hashing algorithm to store the password. The system must use a sufficient number of hashing rounds to ensure the required level of entropy.

Passwords need to be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily compromised.

V-261392

high

V-261393

medium

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 DOD data may be compromised.

SLEM 5 using encryption are required to use FIPS 140-2/140-3 compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules.

FIPS 140-2/140-3 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules use authentication that meets DOD requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general-purpose computing system.

V-261394

medium

V-261395

medium

V-261396

medium

Using an authentication device, such as a Common Access Card (CAC) or token separate from the information system, ensures that even if the information system is compromised, that compromise will not affect credentials stored on the authentication device.

Multifactor solutions that require devices separate from information systems gaining access include, for example, hardware tokens providing time-based or challenge-response authenticators and smart cards such as the U.S. Government Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card and the DOD CAC.

A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user.

Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, nonorganization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless.

This requirement only applies to components where this is specific to the function of the device or has the concept of an organizational user (e.g., VPN, proxy capability). This does not apply to authentication for the purpose of configuring the device itself (management).

V-261397

medium

Using an authentication device, such as a Common Access Card (CAC) or token that is separate from the information system, ensures that even if the information system is compromised, that compromise will not affect credentials stored on the authentication device.

Multifactor solutions that require devices separate from information systems gaining access include, for example, hardware tokens providing time-based or challenge-response authenticators and smart cards such as the U.S. Government Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card and the DOD CAC.

A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user.

Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, nonorganization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless.

This requirement only applies to components where this is specific to the function of the device or has the concept of an organizational user (e.g., VPN, proxy capability). This does not apply to authentication for the purpose of configuring the device itself (management).

V-261398

medium

Using an authentication device, such as a Common Access Card (CAC) or token separate from the information system, ensures credentials stored on the authentication device will not be affected if the information system is compromised.

Multifactor solutions that require devices separate from information systems to gain access include hardware tokens providing time-based or challenge-response authenticators, and smart cards such as the U.S. Government Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card and the DOD CAC.

A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user.

Remote access is access to DOD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, nonorganization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless.

This requirement only applies to components with device-specific functions, or for organizational users (e.g., VPN, proxy capability). This does not apply to authentication for the purpose of configuring the device itself (management).

V-261399

medium

If cached authentication information is out of date, the validity of the authentication information may be questionable.

V-261400

medium

If cached authentication information is out of date, the validity of the authentication information may be questionable.

V-261401

medium

Without path validation, an informed trust decision by the relying party cannot be made when presented with any certificate not already explicitly trusted.

A trust anchor is an authoritative entity represented via a public key and associated data. It is used in the context of public key infrastructures, X.509 digital certificates, and DNSSEC.

When there is a chain of trust, usually the top entity to be trusted becomes the trust anchor; it can be, for example, a Certification Authority (CA). A certification path starts with the subject certificate and proceeds through a number of intermediate certificates up to a trusted root certificate, typically issued by a trusted CA.

This requirement verifies that a certification path to an accepted trust anchor is used for certificate validation and that the path includes status information. Path validation is necessary for a relying party to make an informed trust decision when presented with any certificate not already explicitly trusted. Status information for certification paths includes certificate revocation lists or online certificate status protocol responses. Validation of the certificate status information is out of scope for this requirement.

V-261402

medium

The "pam-config" command line utility automatically generates a system PAM configuration as packages are installed, updated, or removed from the system. "pam-config" removes configurations for PAM modules and parameters that it does not know about. It may render ineffective PAM configuration by the system administrator and thus impact system security.

V-261403

medium

Without verification of the security functions, security functions may not operate correctly, and the failure may go unnoticed. Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the information system responsible for enforcing the system security policy and supporting the isolation of code and data on which the protection is based. Security functionality includes, but is not limited to, establishing system accounts, configuring access authorizations (i.e., permissions, privileges), setting events to be audited, and setting intrusion detection parameters.

This requirement applies to SLEM 5 performing security function verification/testing and/or systems and environments that require this functionality.

V-261404

medium

ACLs can provide permissions beyond those permitted through the file mode and must be verified by file integrity tools.

V-261405

medium

Extended attributes in file systems are used to contain arbitrary data and file metadata with security implications.

V-261406

medium

Protecting the integrity of the tools used for auditing purposes is a critical step toward ensuring the integrity of audit information. Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit settings, and audit reports) needed to successfully audit information system activity.

Audit tools include but are not limited to vendor-provided and open-source audit tools needed to successfully view and manipulate audit information system activity and records. Audit tools include custom queries and report generators.

It is not uncommon for attackers to replace the audit tools or inject code into the existing tools to provide the capability to hide or erase system activity from the audit logs.

To address this risk, audit tools must be cryptographically signed to provide the capability to identify when the audit tools have been modified, manipulated, or replaced. An example is a checksum hash of the file or files.

V-261407

medium

Unauthorized changes to the baseline configuration could make the system vulnerable to various attacks or allow unauthorized access to SLEM 5. Changes to SLEM 5 configurations can have unintended side effects, some of which may be relevant to security.

Detecting such changes and providing an automated response can help avoid unintended, negative consequences that could ultimately affect the security state of SLEM 5. SLEM 5's information system security manager (ISSM)/information system security officer (ISSO) and system administrator (SA) must be notified via email and/or monitoring system trap when there is an unauthorized modification of a configuration item.

V-261408

medium

If anomalies are not acted on, security functions may fail to secure the system.

Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the information system responsible for enforcing the system security policy and supporting the isolation of code and data on which the protection is based. Security functionality includes, but is not limited to, establishing system accounts, configuring access authorizations (i.e., permissions, privileges), setting events to be audited, and setting intrusion detection parameters.

Notifications provided by information systems include messages to local computer consoles and/or hardware indications, such as lights.

This capability must take into account operational requirements for availability for selecting an appropriate response. The organization may choose to shut down or restart the information system upon security function anomaly detection.

V-261409

medium

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

V-261410

medium

Without establishing what type of events occurred, the source of events, where events occurred, and the outcome of events, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack.

Audit record content that may be necessary to satisfy this requirement includes, for example, time stamps, source and destination addresses, user/process identifiers, event descriptions, success/fail indications, filenames involved, and access control or flow control rules invoked.

Associating event types with detected events in SLEM 5 audit logs provides a means of investigating an attack, recognizing resource utilization or capacity thresholds, or identifying an improperly configured SLEM 5.

V-261411

medium

V-261412

medium

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

The auditd service does not include the ability to send audit records to a centralized server for management directly. However, it can use a plug-in for audit event multiplexor to pass audit records to a remote server.

V-261413

medium

To ensure SLEM 5 has a sufficient storage capacity in which to write the audit logs, SLEM 5 must be able to allocate audit record storage capacity.

The task of allocating audit record storage capacity is usually performed during initial installation of SLEM 5.

V-261414

medium

If security personnel are not notified immediately when storage volume reaches 75 percent utilization, they are unable to plan for audit record storage capacity expansion.

V-261415

medium

It is critical that when SLEM 5 is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required, it takes action to mitigate the failure. Audit processing failures include software/hardware errors, failures in the audit capturing mechanisms, and audit storage capacity being reached or exceeded. Responses to audit failure depend on the nature of the failure mode.

When availability is an overriding concern, other approved actions in response to an audit failure are as follows:

1) If the failure was caused by the lack of audit record storage capacity, SLEM 5 must continue generating audit records if possible (automatically restarting the audit service if necessary), overwriting the oldest audit records in a first-in-first-out manner.

2) If audit records are sent to a centralized collection server and communication with this server is lost or the server fails, SLEM 5 must queue audit records locally until communication is restored or until the audit records are retrieved manually. Upon restoration of the connection to the centralized collection server, action should be taken to synchronize the local audit data with the collection server.

V-261416

medium

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

V-261417

medium

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

V-261418

medium

Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent the auditing of critical events. Misconfigured audits may degrade the system's performance by overwhelming the audit log. Misconfigured audits may also make it more difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

V-261419

medium

Protecting audit information includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on audit information.

SLEM 5 providing tools to interface with audit information will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the tools and the corresponding rights the user enjoys to make access decisions regarding the access to audit tools.

Audit tools include, but are not limited to, vendor-provided and open-source audit tools needed to view and manipulate audit information system activity and records. Audit tools include custom queries and report generators.

V-261420

medium

Protecting audit information includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on audit information.

SLEM 5 providing tools to interface with audit information will leverage user permissions and roles identifying the user accessing the tools and the corresponding rights the user enjoys to make access decisions regarding the access to audit tools.

Audit tools include, but are not limited to, vendor-provided and open-source audit tools needed to successfully view and manipulate audit information system activity and records. Audit tools include custom queries and report generators.

V-261421

low

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Allowing devices and users to connect to or from the system without first authenticating them allows untrusted access and can lead to a compromise or attack. Audit events that may include sensitive data must be encrypted prior to transmission. Kerberos provides a mechanism to provide both authentication and encryption for audit event records.

V-261422

medium

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Offloading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

V-261423

medium

It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a system is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without this notification, the security personnel may be unaware of an impending failure of the audit capability, and system operation may be adversely affected.

Audit processing failures include software/hardware errors, failures in the audit capturing mechanisms, and audit storage capacity being reached or exceeded.

This requirement applies to each audit data storage repository (i.e., distinct information system component where audit records are stored), the centralized audit storage capacity of organizations (i.e., all audit data storage repositories combined), or both.

V-261424

medium

V-261425

medium

V-261426

medium

V-261427

medium

V-261428

medium

V-261429

medium

V-261430

medium

V-261431

medium

V-261432

medium

V-261433

medium

Without the capability to generate audit records, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter).

The list of audited events is the set of events for which audits are to be generated. This set of events is typically a subset of the list of all events for which the system is capable of generating audit records.

DOD has defined the following list of events for which SLEM 5 will provide an audit record generation capability:

1) Successful and unsuccessful attempts to access, modify, or delete privileges, security objects, security levels, or categories of information (e.g., classification levels);

2) Access actions, such as successful and unsuccessful logon attempts, privileged activities or other system-level access, starting and ending time for user access to the system, concurrent logons from different workstations, successful and unsuccessful accesses to objects, all program initiations, and all direct access to the information system;

3) All account creations, modifications, disabling, and terminations; and

4) All kernel module load, unload, and restart actions.

V-261434

medium

V-261435

medium

V-261436

medium

V-261437

medium

V-261438

medium

V-261439

medium

V-261440

medium

V-261441

medium

V-261442

medium

V-261443

medium

V-261444

medium

V-261445

medium

V-261446

medium

V-261447

medium

V-261448

medium

V-261449

medium

Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to simply create a new account. Auditing account creation mitigates this risk.

To address access requirements, SLEM 5 may be integrated with enterprise-level authentication/access/auditing mechanisms that meet or exceed access control policy requirements.

V-261450

medium

V-261451

medium

V-261452

medium

V-261453

medium

Without generating audit records specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). The system call rules are loaded into a matching engine that intercepts each syscall made by all programs on the system. Therefore, it is important to use syscall rules only when absolutely necessary since these affect performance. The more rules, the bigger the performance hit. However, the performance can be helped by combining syscalls into one rule whenever possible.

V-261454

medium

Without generating audit records specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). The system call rules are loaded into a matching engine that intercepts each syscall made by all programs on the system. Therefore, it is very important to use syscall rules only when absolutely necessary, since these affect performance. The more rules, the bigger the performance hit. The performance can be helped, however, by combining syscalls into one rule whenever possible.

V-261455

medium

Without generating audit records specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). The system call rules are loaded into a matching engine that intercepts each syscall made by all programs on the system. Therefore, it is very important to use syscall rules only when absolutely necessary, since these affect performance. The more rules, the bigger the performance hit. The performance can be helped, however, by combining syscalls into one rule whenever possible.

V-261456

medium

V-261457

medium

Without generating audit records specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). The system call rules are loaded into a matching engine that intercepts each syscall made by all programs on the system. Therefore, it is very important to use syscall rules only when absolutely necessary, since these affect performance. The more rules, the bigger the performance hit. The performance can be helped, however, by combining syscalls into one rule whenever possible.

V-261458

medium

V-261459

medium

Without generating audit records specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). The system call rules are loaded into a matching engine that intercepts each syscall made by all programs on the system. Therefore, it is very important to use syscall rules only when absolutely necessary, since these affect performance. The more rules, the bigger the performance hit. The performance can be helped, however, by combining syscalls into one rule whenever possible.

V-261460

medium

V-261461

medium

Without generating audit records specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). The system call rules are loaded into a matching engine that intercepts each syscall made by all programs on the system. Therefore, it is very important to use syscall rules only when absolutely necessary, since these affect performance. The more rules, the bigger the performance hit. The performance can be helped, however, by combining syscalls into one rule whenever possible.

V-261462

medium

Misuse of privileged functions, either intentionally or unintentionally by authorized users, or by unauthorized external entities that have compromised information system accounts, is a serious and ongoing concern and can have significant adverse impacts on organizations. Auditing the use of privileged functions is one way to detect such misuse and identify the risk from insider threats and the advanced persistent threat.

V-261463

medium

V-261464

medium

V-261465

medium

V-261466

medium

Reconstruction of harmful events or forensic analysis is not possible if audit records do not contain enough information.

At a minimum, the organization must audit the full-text recording of privileged commands. The organization must maintain audit trails in sufficient detail to reconstruct events to determine the cause and impact of compromise. The "setfiles" command is primarily used to initialize the security context fields (extended attributes) on one or more filesystems (or parts of them). Usually it is initially run as part of the SELinux installation process (a step commonly known as labeling).

When a user logs on, the AUID is set to the UID of the account that is being authenticated. Daemons are not user sessions and have the loginuid set to "-1". The AUID representation is an unsigned 32-bit integer, which equals "4294967295". The audit system interprets "-1", "4294967295", and "unset" in the same way.

V-261467

medium

Reconstruction of harmful events or forensic analysis is not possible if audit records do not contain enough information.

At a minimum, the organization must audit the full-text recording of privileged commands. The organization must maintain audit trails in sufficient detail to reconstruct events to determine the cause and impact of compromise. The "semanage" command is used to configure certain elements of SELinux policy without requiring modification to or recompilation from policy sources.

When a user logs on, the AUID is set to the UID of the account that is being authenticated. Daemons are not user sessions and have the loginuid set to "-1". The AUID representation is an unsigned 32-bit integer, which equals "4294967295". The audit system interprets "-1", "4294967295", and "unset" in the same way.

V-261468

medium

Reconstruction of harmful events or forensic analysis is not possible if audit records do not contain enough information.

At a minimum, the organization must audit the full-text recording of privileged commands. The organization must maintain audit trails in sufficient detail to reconstruct events to determine the cause and impact of compromise. The "setsebool" command sets the current state of a particular SELinux Boolean or a list of Booleans to a given value.

When a user logs on, the AUID is set to the UID of the account that is being authenticated. Daemons are not user sessions and have the loginuid set to "-1". The AUID representation is an unsigned 32-bit integer, which equals "4294967295". The audit system interprets "-1", "4294967295", and "unset" in the same way.

V-261469

medium

V-261470

medium

V-261471

medium

V-261472

medium

By default, SLEM 5 includes the "-a task,never" audit rule as a default. This rule suppresses syscall auditing for all tasks started with this rule in effect. Because the audit daemon processes the "audit.rules" file from the top down, this rule supersedes all other defined syscall rules; therefore no syscall auditing can take place on the operating system.

V-261473

high

Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of using encryption to protect data. SLEM 5 must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards approved by the federal government since this provides assurance they have been tested and validated.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro (SLEM) 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro (SLEM) 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Assessment Title

Description