Vulnerability Discussion

SSH trust relationships mean a compromise on one host can allow an attacker to move trivially to other hosts.

OpenSSH uses the first occurrence of a keyword it sees, and drop-in files are read in lexicographical order at the start of the configuration. Red Hat recommends using drop-in files rather than changing base configuration files.

Check

Verify RHEL 10 does not allow a noncertificate trusted host SSH login to the system 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*hostbasedauthentication'
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/10-stig.conf:HostbasedAuthentication no

Verify the runtime setting with the following command:

$ sudo sshd -T | grep -i hostbasedauthentication
hostbasedauthentication no

If the "HostbasedAuthentication" keyword is not set to "no" in a drop-in that lexicographically precedes 50-redhat.conf, or no output is returned, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure RHEL 10 to not allow a noncertificate trusted host SSH login to the system.

In "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d", create a drop file that will lexicographically precede 50-redhat.conf and add the following line:

HostbasedAuthentication no

Restart the SSH daemon with the following command for the settings to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service