SLEM 5 must employ FIPS 140-2/140-3 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm for system authentication (login.defs).

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-261393	SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061	SLEM-05-611090	SV-261393r996602_rule	2024-06-04	1

Description
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.

Description

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.

ℹ️ Check
Verify that the shadow password suite configuration is set to encrypt password with a FIPS 140-2/140-3 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm with the following command: > grep "^ENCRYPT_METHOD " /etc/login.defs ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512 If "ENCRYPT_METHOD" is not set to "SHA512", if any values other that "SHA512" are configured, or if no output is produced, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure SLEM 5 to require "ENCRYPT_METHOD" of "SHA512". Add or modify the following line in the "/etc/login.defs" file: ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512