V-261393

Discussion

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied on to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DOD data may be compromised. SLEM 5 using encryption are required to use FIPS 140-2/140-3 compliant mechanisms for authenticating to cryptographic modules. FIPS 140-2/140-3 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules use authentication that meets DOD requirements. This allows for Security Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 for use on a general-purpose computing system.

Check Content

Verify that the shadow password suite configuration is set to encrypt password with a FIPS 140-2/140-3 approved cryptographic hashing algorithm with the following command:

     > grep "^ENCRYPT_METHOD " /etc/login.defs
     ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512

If "ENCRYPT_METHOD" is not set to "SHA512", if any values other that "SHA512" are configured, or if no output is produced, this is a finding.