Description
The INFO parameter specifices that record login and logout activity will be logged.
The default SSH configuration sets the log level to INFO. The appropriate
configuration is used if no value is set for LogLevel.
To explicitly specify the log level in SSH, add or correct the following line in
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf:
Rationale
SSH provides several logging levels with varying amounts of verbosity. DEBUG is specifically
not recommended other than strictly for debugging SSH communications since it provides
so much data that it is difficult to identify important security information. INFO level is the
basic level that only records login activity of SSH users. In many situations, such as Incident
Response, it is important to determine when a particular user was active on a system. The
logout record can eliminate those users who disconnected, which helps narrow the field.
Shell script
The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.
#!/bin/bash
# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then
mkdir -p /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
touch /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf
LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*LogLevel\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"
LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*LogLevel\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d"/*.conf
if [ -e "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf" ] ; then
LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*LogLevel\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
else
touch "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
fi
# make sure file has newline at the end
sed -i -e '$a\' "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
cp "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf.bak"
# Insert at the beginning of the file
printf '%s\n' "LogLevel INFO" > "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
cat "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf.bak" >> "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf"
# Clean up after ourselves.
rm "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf.bak"
else
>&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi
Ansible playbook
The following playbook can be run with Ansible to remediate the issue.
- name: Set LogLevel to INFO
block:
- name: Deduplicate values from /etc/ssh/sshd_config
lineinfile:
path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
create: false
regexp: (?i)^\s*{{ "LogLevel"| regex_escape }}\s+
state: absent
- name: Check if /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d exists
stat:
path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
register: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_exists
- name: Check if the parameter LogLevel is present in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
find:
paths: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
recurse: 'yes'
follow: 'no'
contains: (?i)^\s*{{ "LogLevel"| regex_escape }}\s+
register: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_has_parameter
when: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_exists.stat.isdir is defined and _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_exists.stat.isdir
- name: Remove parameter from files in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
lineinfile:
path: '{{ item.path }}'
create: false
regexp: (?i)^\s*{{ "LogLevel"| regex_escape }}\s+
state: absent
with_items: '{{ _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_has_parameter.files }}'
when: _etc_ssh_sshd_config_d_has_parameter.matched
- name: Insert correct line to /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf
lineinfile:
path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/01-complianceascode-reinforce-os-defaults.conf
create: true
regexp: (?i)^\s*{{ "LogLevel"| regex_escape }}\s+
line: LogLevel INFO
state: present
insertbefore: BOF
validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -t -f %s
when: ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
tags:
- NIST-800-53-AC-17(a)
- NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
- low_complexity
- low_disruption
- low_severity
- no_reboot_needed
- restrict_strategy
- sshd_set_loglevel_info
