Vulnerability Discussion

The use of PIV credentials facilitates standardization and reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

DoD has mandated the use of the CAC to support identity management and personal authentication for systems covered under Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12, as well as making the CAC a primary component of layered protection for national security systems.

Check

Verify the Ubuntu operating system electronically verifies PIV credentials.

Verify that certificate status checking for multifactor authentication is implemented with the following command:

$ sudo grep use_pkcs11_module /etc/pam_pkcs11/pam_pkcs11.conf | awk '/pkcs11_module opensc {/,/}/' /etc/pam_pkcs11/pam_pkcs11.conf | grep cert_policy | grep ocsp_on

cert_policy = ca,signature,ocsp_on;

If "cert_policy" is not set to "ocsp_on", or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to do certificate status checking for multifactor authentication.

Modify all of the "cert_policy" lines in "/etc/pam_pkcs11/pam_pkcs11.conf" to include "ocsp_on".