CIS Compliance

CIS Compliance

CIS® (Center for Internet Security, Inc.) is a forward-thinking, non-profit entity that harnesses the power of a global IT community to safeguard private and public organizations against cyber threats.

The CIS Controls™ and CIS Benchmarks™ are the global standard and recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data against the most pervasive attacks. These proven guidelines are continuously refined and verified by a volunteer, global community of experienced IT professionals.

Over time we have seen more and more customers asking for CIS hardening details on the Snare v8 install. The v7 of Snare Central used STIG and some CIS technical controls. For v8 of Snare Central it now has full coverage of the CIS controls which extended the STIG technical controls.  The cisecurity.org site provides a multitude of security review and hardening build standards for many operating systems. The STIG hardening controls for Snare Central v8 are based on https://www.stigviewer.com/stig/canonical_ubuntu_18.04_lts/

The CIS Benchmark for Ubuntu Linux provides prescriptive guidance for establishing a secure configuration posture for Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS systems running on x86 and x64 platforms. Many lists include filesystem types, services, clients, and network protocols. Not all items in these lists are guaranteed to exist on all distributions and additional similar items may exist which should be considered in addition to those explicitly mentioned. The full document can be reviewed on the cisecurity.org site. 

 

Note

CIS requires auditd to be enabled in the system for it to be compliant. Snare Central enables the auditing system only when STIG compliance is enabled, hence it is required that STIG be enabled for the Snare Central to be fully CIS compliant.

We used Nessus vulnerability scanner for a CIS compliance  assessment on Snare Central. The following table lists all Nessus benchmark items that are assessed:

 

 

 

 

 

chapter

section

index

title

v8.x.x enabled

1

 

 

Initial Setup

 

 

1.1

 

Filesystem Configuration

 

 

 

1.1.1.1

Ensure mounting of cramfs filesystems is disabled

always

 

 

1.1.1.2

Ensure mounting of freevxfs filesystems is disabled

always

 

 

1.1.1.3

Ensure mounting of jffs2 filesystems is disabled

always

 

 

1.1.1.4

Ensure mounting of hfs filesystems is disabled

always

 

 

1.1.1.5

Ensure mounting of hfsplus filesystems is disabled

always

 

 

1.1.1.6

Ensure mounting of udf filesystems is disabled

always

 

 

1.1.2

Ensure separate partition exists for /tmp

always

 

 

1.1.3

Ensure nodev option set on /tmp partition

always

 

 

1.1.4

Ensure nosuid option set on /tmp partition

always

 

 

1.1.5

Ensure separate partition exists for /var

always

 

 

1.1.6

Ensure separate partition exists for /var/tmp

always

 

 

1.1.7

Ensure nodev option set on /var/tmp partition

always

 

 

1.1.8

Ensure nosuid option set on /var/tmp partition

always

 

 

1.1.9

Ensure noexec option set on /var/tmp partition

always

 

 

1.1.10

Ensure separate partition exists for /var/log

always

 

 

1.1.11

Ensure separate partition exists for /var/log/audit

always

 

 

1.1.12

Ensure separate partition exists for /home

always

 

 

1.1.13

Ensure nodev option set on /home partition

always

 

 

1.1.14

Ensure nodev option set on /dev/shm partition (/run)

always

 

 

1.1.15

Ensure nosuid option set on /dev/shm partition (/run)

always

 

 

1.1.16

Ensure noexec option set on /dev/shm partition (/run)

always

 

 

1.1.17

Ensure nodev option set on removable media partitions

always

 

 

1.1.18

Ensure nosuid option set on removable media partitions

always

 

 

1.1.19

Ensure noexec option set on removable media partitions

always

 

 

1.1.20

Ensure sticky bit is set on all world-writable directories

always

 

 

1.1.21

Disable Automounting

always

 

1.2

 

Configure Software Updates

 

 

 

1.2.1

Ensure package manager repositories are configured

always

 

 

1.2.2

Ensure GPG keys are configured

always

 

1.3

 

Filesystem Integrity Checking

 

 

 

1.3.1

Ensure AIDE is installed

always

 

 

1.3.2

Ensure filesystem integrity is regularly checked

always

 

1.4

 

Secure Boot Settings

 

 

 

1.4.1

Ensure permissions on bootloader config are configured

always

 

 

1.4.2

Ensure bootloader password is set

Customer to set see below notes

 

 

1.4.3

Ensure authentication required for single user mode

always

 

1.5

 

Additional Process Hardening

 

 

 

1.5.1

Ensure core dumps are restricted

always

 

 

1.5.2

Ensure XD/NX support is enabled

always

 

 

1.5.3

Ensure address space layout randomization (ASLR) is enabled

always

 

 

1.5.4

Ensure prelink is disabled

always

 

1.6

 

Mandatory Access Control

 

 

 

1.6.1.1

Ensure SELinux is not disabled in bootloader configuration

always

 

 

1.6.1.2

Ensure the SELinux state is enforcing

always

 

 

1.6.1.3

Ensure SELinux policy is configured

always

 

 

1.6.1.4

Ensure no unconfined daemons exist

always

 

 

1.6.2.1

Ensure AppArmor is not disabled in bootloader configuration

always

 

 

1.6.2.2

Ensure all AppArmor Profiles are enforcing

always

 

 

1.6.3

Ensure SELinux or AppArmor are installed

always

 

1.7

 

Warning Banners

 

 

 

1.7.1.1

Ensure message of the day is configured properly

always

 

 

1.7.1.2

Ensure local login warning banner is configured properly

always

 

 

1.7.1.3

Ensure remote login warning banner is configured properly

always

 

 

1.7.1.4

Ensure permissions on /etc/motd are configured

always

 

 

1.7.1.5

Ensure permissions on /etc/issue are configured

always

 

 

1.7.1.6

Ensure permissions on /etc/issue.net are configured

always

 

 

1.7.2

Ensure GDM login banner is configured

always

 

1.8

 

Ensure updates patches and additional security software are installed

Snare Central patches the system with OS and security updates with each new release.

 

2

 

 

Services

 

 

2.1

 

inetd Services

 

 

 

2.1.1

Ensure chargen services are not enabled

always

 

 

2.1.2

Ensure daytime services are not enabled

always

 

 

2.1.3

Ensure discard services are not enabled

always

 

 

2.1.4

Ensure echo services are not enabled

always

 

 

2.1.5

Ensure time services are not enabled

always

 

 

2.1.6

Ensure rsh server is not enabled

always