The Redhat Enterprise Linux 9.X Security Technical Implementation Guide (RHEL9.x STIG) InSpec Profile can help programs automate their compliance checks of RedHat Enterprise Linux 9.x System to Department of Defense (DoD) requirements.
- Profile Version:
1.2.2 - RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide v1r2
This profile was developed to reduce the time it takes to perform a security checks based upon the STIG Guidance from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in partnership between the DISA Services Directorate (SD) and the DISA Risk Management Executive (RME) office.
The results of a profile run will provide information needed to support an Authority to Operate (ATO) decision for the applicable technology.
The RHEL8 STIG Profile uses the InSpec open-source compliance validation language to support automation of the required compliance, security and policy testing for Assessment and Authorization (A&A) and Authority to Operate (ATO) decisions and Continuous Authority to Operate (cATO) processes.
- RedHat Enterprise Linux 9.x Security Technical Implementation Guide InSpec Profile
- Getting Started and Intended Usage
- Running the Profile
- Using Heimdall for Viewing Test Results and Exporting for Checklist and eMASS
The DISA RME and DISA SD Office, along with their vendor partners, create and maintain a set of Security Technical Implementation Guides for applications, computer systems and networks connected to the Department of Defense (DoD). These guidelines are the primary security standards used by the DoD agencies. In addition to defining security guidelines, the STIGs also stipulate how security training should proceed and when security checks should occur. Organizations must stay compliant with these guidelines or they risk having their access to the DoD terminated.
The RHEL9 STIG (see public.cyber.mil/stigs/) offers a comprehensive compliance guide for the configuration and operation your RedHat Enterprise Linux 9.x system.
The requirements associated with the RHEL9 STIG are derived from the Security Requirements Guides and align to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-53 Security Controls, DoD Control Correlation Identifier and related standards.
The RHEL9.x STIG profile checks were developed to provide technical implementation validation to the defined DoD requirements, the guidance can provide insight for any organizations wishing to enhance their security posture and can be tailored easily for use in your organization.
- RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide v1r2
The profile will be tested on every commit and every release against both vanilla and hardened ubi and ec2 images using a CI/CD pipeline. The vanilla images are unmodified base images sourced from Red Hat itself. The hardened images have had their settings configured for security according to STIG guidance. Testing both vanilla and hardened configurations of both containerized and virtual machine implementations of RHEL9 is necessary to ensure the profile works in multiple environments.
Further pipelines may be employed to test different hardening content sources (e.g., Ansible code sourced directly from DISA or Red Hat).
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It is intended and recommended that InSpec and the profile be run from a "runner" host, either from source or a local archieve - Running the Profile - (such as a DevOps orchestration server, an administrative management system, or a developer's workstation/laptop) against the target [ remotely over ssh].
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For the best security of the runner, always install on the runner the latest version of InSpec and supporting Ruby language components.
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The latest versions and installation options are available at the InSpec site.
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Always use the latest version of the
released profile(see below) on your system.
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The latest
releasedversion of the profile is intended for use in A&A testing, as well as providing formal results to Authorizing Officials and IAMs. Please use thereleasedversions of the profile in these types of workflows. -
The
mainbranch is a development branch that will become the next release of the profile. Themainbranch is intended for use in developing and testing merge requests for the next release of the profile, and is not intended be used for formal and ongoing testing on systems.
The RHEL9.x STIG profile is container aware and is able to determine when the profile is being executed inside or outside a docker container and will only run the tests that are approporate for the enviroment it is testing in. The tests are all tagged as host or host, container.
All the profile's tests (controls) apply to the host but many of the controls are Not Applicable when running inside a docker container (such as, for example, controls that test the system's GUI). When running inside a docker container, the tests that only applicable to the host will be marked as Not Applicable automatically.
This profile uses InSpec Inputs to make the tests more flexible. You are able to provide inputs at runtime either via the cli or via YAML files to help the profile work best in your deployment.
The inputs configured in the inspec.yml file are profile definition and defaults for the profile and not for the user. InSpec provides two ways to adjust the profiles inputs at run-time that do not require modifiying inspec.yml itself. This is because automated profiles like this one are frequently run from a script, inside a pipeline or some kind of task scheduler. Such automation usually works by running the profile directly from its source (i.e. this repository), which means the runner will not have access to the inspec.yml.
To tailor the tested values for your deployment or organizationally defined values, you may update the inputs.
- Via the cli with the
--inputflag - Pass them in a YAML file with the
--input-fileflag.
More information about InSpec inputs can be found in the InSpec Inputs Documentation.
Example Inputs
TODOinspec exec https://github.com/mitre/redhat-enterprise-linux-9-stig-baseline/archive/main.tar.gz --input-file=<your_inputs_file.yml> -t ssh://<hostname>:<port> --sudo --reporter=cli json:<your_results_file.json>
If your runner is not always expected to have direct access to the profile's hosted location, use the following steps to create an archive bundle of this overlay and all of its dependent tests:
(Git is required to clone the InSpec profile using the instructions below. Git can be downloaded from the Git site.)
When the "runner" host uses this profile overlay for the first time, follow these steps:
mkdir profiles
cd profiles
git clone https://github.com/mitre/redhat-enterprise-linux-9-stig-baseline.git
inspec archive redhat-enterprise-linux-9-stig-baseline
<sneakerNet your archive>
inspec exec <name of generated archive> --input-file=<your_inputs_file.yml> -t ssh://<hostname>:<port> --sudo --reporter=cli json:<your_results_file.json>
For every successive run, follow these steps to always have the latest version of this overlay and dependent profiles:
- Delete and recreate your archive as shown above
- Update your archive with the following steps
cd redhat-enterprise-linux-9-stig-baseline
git pull
cd ..
inspec archive redhat-enterprise-linux-9-stig-baseline
The JSON results output file can be loaded into Heimdall for a user-interactive, graphical view of the profile scan results. Heimdall-Lite is a browser only viewer that allows you to easily view your results directly and locally rendered in your browser.
It can also export your results into a DISA Checklist (CKL) file for easily upload into eMass using the Heimdall Export function.
Depending on your enviroment, you can also use the SAF CLI to run a local docker instance of heimdall-lite via the saf view:heimdall command.
The JSON results file may also be loaded into a full Heimdall Server, allowing for additional functionality such as to store and compare multiple profile runs.
You can deploy your own instances of Heimdall-Lite or Heimdall Server easily via docker, kurbernetes, or the installation packages.
Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) https://www.disa.mil/
STIG support by DISA Risk Management Team and Cyber Exchange https://public.cyber.mil/
MITRE Security Automation Framework Team https://saf.mitre.org
DISA STIGs are published by DISA IASE, see: https://iase.disa.mil/Pages/privacy_policy.aspx
