Vulnerability Discussion

Without the use of multifactor authentication, the ease of access to privileged functions is greatly increased. Multifactor authentication requires using two or more factors to achieve authentication. A privileged account is defined as an information system account with authorizations of a privileged user. The DOD Common Access Card (CAC) with DOD-approved PKI is an example of multifactor authentication.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000375-GPOS-00160, SRG-OS-000105-GPOS-00052

Check

Note: If the system administrator (SA) demonstrates the use of an approved alternate multifactor authentication method, this requirement is Not Applicable.

To verify that RHEL 9 has smart cards enabled in System Security Services Daemon (SSSD), run the following command:

$ sudo grep -ir pam_cert_auth /etc/sssd/sssd.conf /etc/sssd/conf.d/

pam_cert_auth = True

If "pam_cert_auth" is not set to "True", the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

Fix

Edit the file "/etc/sssd/sssd.conf" or a configuration file in "/etc/sssd/conf.d" and add or edit the following line:

pam_cert_auth = True