Details

Use of weak or unvalidated cryptographic algorithms undermines the purposes of using encryption and digital signatures to protect data. Weak algorithms can be broken, and unvalidated cryptographic modules may not implement algorithms correctly. Unapproved cryptographic modules or algorithms should not be relied on for authentication, confidentiality, or integrity. Weak cryptography could allow an attacker to gain access to and modify data stored in the database as well as the administration settings of the DBMS.

VMware Postgres does not currently implement FIPS-validated cryptographic modules. This is on the roadmap but, in the interim, Postgres can be configured with strong ciphers from the FIPS 140 approved suite. Additionally, as an embedded database and available only on localhost for standalone VCSAs, TLS connections are used only in high-availability deployments for connections between a primary and a standby.

Satisfies: SRG-APP-000179-DB-000114, SRG-APP-000514-DB-000381, SRG-APP-000514-DB-000382, SRG-APP-000514-DB-000383

Solution

At the command prompt, execute the following commands:

# /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -c ‘ALTER SYSTEM SET ssl_ciphers TO ‘!aNULL:kECDH+AES:ECDH+AES:RSA+AES:@STRENGTH’;’

# /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -c ‘SELECT pg_reload_conf();’

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_vSphere_6-7_STIG.zip

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Identification and Authentication.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|IA-7
• CAT|I
• CCI|CCI-000803
• Rule-ID|SV-239207r717058_rule
• STIG-ID|VCPG-67-000015
• Vuln-ID|V-239207

Source

• Tenable.com/audits