The Photon operating system must configure Secure Shell (SSH) to disallow HostbasedAuthentication.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-258857 | PHTN-40-000188 | SV-258857r991591_rule | High |
| Description |
| SSH trust relationships enable trivial lateral spread after a host compromise and therefore must be explicitly disabled. |
| STIG | Date |
| VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2024-07-11 |
Details
| Check Text (C-62597r933630_chk) |
| At the command line, run the following command to verify the running configuration of sshd: # sshd -T|&grep -i HostbasedAuthentication Example result: hostbasedauthentication no If "HostbasedAuthentication" is not set to "no", this is a finding. |
| Fix Text (F-62506r933631_fix) |
| Navigate to and open: /etc/ssh/sshd_config Ensure the "HostbasedAuthentication" line is uncommented and set to the following: HostbasedAuthentication no At the command line, run the following command: # systemctl restart sshd.service |