The SUSE operating system SSH daemon private host key files must have mode 0640 or less permissive.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-235009	SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227	SLES-15-040250	SV-235009r991589_rule	2025-02-27	2

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

ℹ️ Check
Verify the SUSE operating system SSH daemon private host key files have mode "0640" or less permissive. The following command will find all SSH private key files on the system: > sudo find / -name 'ssh_hostkey' -exec ls -lL {} \; Check the mode of the private host key files under "/etc/ssh" file with the following command: > find /etc/ssh -name 'ssh_host*key' -exec stat -c "%a %n" {} \; 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key If any file has a mode more permissive than "0640", this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the SUSE operating system SSH daemon private host key files have mode "0640" or less permissive. The following command will find all SSH private key files on the system: > sudo find / -name '*ssh_host*key' -exec ls -lL {} \; Check the mode of the private host key files under "/etc/ssh" file with the following command: > find /etc/ssh -name 'ssh_host*key' -exec stat -c "%a %n" {} \; 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key 640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key If any file has a mode more permissive than "0640", this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure the mode of the SUSE operating system SSH daemon private host key files under "/etc/ssh" to "0640" with the following command: > sudo chmod 0640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host*key