DISA STIGS Viewer

OL 9 must enable the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) interface for SSHD.

Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-271707 OL09-00-002344 SV-271707r1091833_rule   High
Description
When UsePAM is set to "yes", PAM runs through account and session types properly. This is important when restricted access to services based off of IP, time, or other factors of the account is needed. Additionally, this ensures users can inherit certain environment variables on login or disallow access to the server.
STIG Date
Oracle Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2025-05-08

Details

Check Text (C-75757r1091831_chk)
Verify that OL 9 SSHD is configured to allow for the UsePAM interface with the following command:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*usepam'
UsePAM yes

If the "UsePAM" keyword is set to "no", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-75664r1091832_fix)
Configure the OL 9 SSHD to use the UsePAM interface by adding or modifying the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" or in a file in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d".

UsePAM yes

Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service