Guide to the Secure Configuration of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

with profile C2S for Docker
This profile demonstrates compliance against the U.S. Government Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) baseline. This baseline was inspired by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Docker Community Edition Benchmark, v1.1.0 - 07-06-2017. For the SCAP Security Guide project to remain in compliance with CIS' terms and conditions, specifically Restrictions(8), note there is no representation or claim that the C2S profile will ensure a system is in compliance or consistency with the CIS baseline.

This guide presents a catalog of security-relevant configuration settings for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. It is a rendering of content structured in the eXtensible Configuration Checklist Description Format (XCCDF) in order to support security automation. The SCAP content is is available in the scap-security-guide package which is developed at https://www.open-scap.org/security-policies/scap-security-guide.

Providing system administrators with such guidance informs them how to securely configure systems under their control in a variety of network roles. Policy makers and baseline creators can use this catalog of settings, with its associated references to higher-level security control catalogs, in order to assist them in security baseline creation. This guide is a catalog, not a checklist, and satisfaction of every item is not likely to be possible or sensible in many operational scenarios. However, the XCCDF format enables granular selection and adjustment of settings, and their association with OVAL and OCIL content provides an automated checking capability. Transformations of this document, and its associated automated checking content, are capable of providing baselines that meet a diverse set of policy objectives. Some example XCCDF Profiles, which are selections of items that form checklists and can be used as baselines, are available with this guide. They can be processed, in an automated fashion, with tools that support the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP). The DISA STIG for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, which provides required settings for US Department of Defense systems, is one example of a baseline created from this guidance.

This benchmark is a direct port of a SCAP Security Guide benchmark developed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It has been modified through an automated process to remove specific dependencies on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and to function with CentOS. The result is a generally useful SCAP Security Guide benchmark with the following caveats:

  • CentOS is not an exact copy of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. There may be configuration differences that produce false positives and/or false negatives. If this occurs please file a bug report.
  • CentOS has its own build system, compiler options, patchsets, and is a community supported, non-commercial operating system. CentOS does not inherit certifications or evaluations from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. As such, some configuration rules (such as those requiring FIPS 140-2 encryption) will continue to fail on CentOS.

Members of the CentOS community are invited to participate in OpenSCAP and SCAP Security Guide development. Bug reports and patches can be sent to GitHub: https://github.com/OpenSCAP/scap-security-guide. The mailing list is at https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/scap-security-guide.

Do not attempt to implement any of the settings in this guide without first testing them in a non-operational environment. The creators of this guidance assume no responsibility whatsoever for its use by other parties, and makes no guarantees, expressed or implied, about its quality, reliability, or any other characteristic.
Profile TitleC2S for Docker
Profile IDxccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_C2S-docker

Revision History

Current version: 0.1.38

  • draft (as of 2018-03-05)

Platforms

  • cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7
  • cpe:/o:centos:centos:7
  • cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7::client
  • cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode

Table of Contents

  1. System Settings
    1. Installing and Maintaining Software

Checklist

contains 1 rule

System Settings   [ref]group

Contains rules that check correct system settings.

contains 1 rule

Installing and Maintaining Software   [ref]group

The following sections contain information on security-relevant choices during the initial operating system installation process and the setup of software updates.

contains 1 rule

Updating Software   [ref]group

The yum command line tool is used to install and update software packages. The system also provides a graphical software update tool in the System menu, in the Administration submenu, called Software Update.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems contain an installed software catalog called the RPM database, which records metadata of installed packages. Consistently using yum or the graphical Software Update for all software installation allows for insight into the current inventory of installed software on the system.

contains 1 rule

Ensure Software Patches Installed   [ref]rule

If the system is joined to the Red Hat Network, a Red Hat Satellite Server, or a yum server, run the following command to install updates:

$ sudo yum update
If the system is not configured to use one of these sources, updates (in the form of RPM packages) can be manually downloaded from the Red Hat Network and installed using rpm.

NOTE: U.S. Defense systems are required to be patched within 30 days or sooner as local policy dictates.

Rationale:

Installing software updates is a fundamental mitigation against the exploitation of publicly-known vulnerabilities. If the most recent security patches and updates are not installed, unauthorized users may take advantage of weaknesses in the unpatched software. The lack of prompt attention to patching could result in a system compromise.

Severity:  high

References:  SV-86623r3_rule

Remediation Shell script:   (show)

Complexity:low
Disruption:high
Reboot:true
Strategy:patch
yum -y update
Remediation Ansible snippet:   (show)

Complexity:low
Disruption:high
Reboot:true
Strategy:patch
- name: "Security patches are up to date"
  package:
    name: "*"
    state: "latest"
  tags:
    - security_patches_up_to_date
    - high_severity
    - patch_strategy
    - low_complexity
    - high_disruption
    - CCE-26895-3
    - DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-020260

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