The SUSE operating system must employ FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication (login.defs).

From SLES 12 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000803

SV-91789r2_rule The SUSE operating system must employ FIPS 140-2 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication (login.defs).

Vulnerability discussion

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.SUSE operating systems using encryption are required to use FIPS-compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules. FIPS 140-2 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.

Check content

Verify the SUSE operating system requires that the "ENCRYPT_METHOD" value in "/etc/login.defs" is set to "SHA512". Check the value of "ENCRYPT_METHOD" value in "/etc/login.defs" with the following command: # cat /etc/login.defs | grep -i encrypt_method ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512 If "ENCRYPT_METHOD" is not set to "SHA512", if any values other that "SHA512" are configured, or "ENCRYPT_METHOD" is commented out or not set, this is a finding.

Fix text

Configure the SUSE operating system to require "ENCRYPT_METHOD" in "/etc/login.defs" be set to "SHA512" by running the following command as a superuser: # sudo grep -q '^.*ENCRYPT_METHOD' /etc/login.defs && sudo sed -i 's/^.*ENCRYPT_METHOD.*/ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512/' /etc/login.defs || sudo echo 'ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512' >> /etc/login.defs

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