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STIG: Enforce Strong SSH Crypto
MediumLinux Security20-25 minThe brief
This host's SSH daemon still negotiates legacy, broken cryptography: CBC-mode ciphers, MD5/SHA-1 MACs, and SHA-1 key exchange. Bring /etc/ssh/sshd_config to the Ubuntu 22.04 STIG's FIPS 140-3 lists. Each of Ciphers, MACs and KexAlgorithms must be set explicitly and list only algorithms the STIG approves. Note that modern favourites like chacha20-poly1305 and curve25519 are strong but not FIPS-approved, so the STIG rejects them. Grading reads the effective algorithm lists (sshd -T) the way the STIG check does.
What you'll do
- Ciphers lists only STIG-approved AES-CTR/GCM ciphers (UBTU-22-255050)
- MACs lists only STIG-approved SHA-2 MACs (UBTU-22-255055)
- KexAlgorithms lists only STIG-approved ECDH/DH-GEX key exchange (UBTU-22-255060)
Hands-on lab: you work on a real Linux box in your browser, graded on the machine's actual state.
