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Security and Hardening Guide › Regulations and Compliance › Enabling compliance with FIPS 140-3
ContentsContents
Security and Hardening Guide
  1. Preface
  2. 1 Security and confidentiality
  3. I Authentication
    1. 2 Authentication with PAM
    2. 3 Using NIS
    3. 4 Setting up authentication clients using YaST
    4. 5 LDAP with 389 Directory Server
    5. 6 Network authentication with Kerberos
    6. 7 Active Directory support
    7. 8 Setting up a freeRADIUS server
  4. II Local security
    1. 9 Physical security
    2. 10 Software management
    3. 11 File management
    4. 12 Encrypting partitions and files
    5. 13 Storage encryption for hosted applications with cryptctl
    6. 14 User management
    7. 15 Restricting cron and at
    8. 16 Spectre/Meltdown checker
    9. 17 Configuring security settings with YaST
    10. 18 The Polkit authentication framework
    11. 19 Access control lists in Linux
    12. 20 Intrusion detection with AIDE
  5. III Network security
    1. 21 X Window System and X authentication
    2. 22 Securing network operations with OpenSSH
    3. 23 Masquerading and firewalls
    4. 24 Configuring a VPN server
    5. 25 Managing a PKI with XCA, X certificate and key manager
    6. 26 Improving network security with sysctl variables
  6. IV Regulations and Compliance
    1. 27 Common Criteria
    2. 28 Enabling compliance with FIPS 140-3
  7. V Confining privileges with AppArmor
    1. 29 Introducing AppArmor
    2. 30 Getting started
    3. 31 Immunizing programs
    4. 32 Profile components and syntax
    5. 33 AppArmor profile repositories
    6. 34 Building and managing profiles with YaST
    7. 35 Building profiles from the command line
    8. 36 Profiling your Web applications using ChangeHat
    9. 37 Confining users with pam_apparmor
    10. 38 Managing profiled applications
    11. 39 Support
    12. 40 AppArmor glossary
  8. VI SELinux
    1. 41 Configuring SELinux
  9. VII The Linux Audit Framework
    1. 42 Understanding Linux audit
    2. 43 Setting up the Linux audit framework
    3. 44 Introducing an audit rule set
    4. 45 Useful resources
  10. A GNU licenses
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Security and Hardening Guide › Regulations and Compliance › Enabling compliance with FIPS 140-3
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Applies to openSUSE Leap 15.5

28 Enabling compliance with FIPS 140-3 Edit source

Abstract

If your organization does any work for the United States federal government, your cryptography applications (such as openSSL, GnuTLS and OpenJDK) may be required to comply with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-3. FIPS 140-3 is a security accreditation program for validating cryptographic modules produced by private companies. If your organization is not required by compliance rules to run SUSE Linux Enterprise in FIPS mode, it is best to not do it. This chapter provides guidance on enabling FIPS mode, and links to resources with detailed information.

28.1 FIPS overview
28.2 When to enable FIPS mode
28.3 MD5 not supported in Samba/CIFS
Important
Important: openSUSE Leap 15.5 and FIPS 140-3

openSUSE Leap 15.5 is currently implementing the FIPS 140-3 standard. The relevant binaries are undergoing certification and will be updated in the near future.

For further details, contact your SUSE sales representative.

28.1 FIPS overview Edit source

Every vendor that develops and maintains cryptographic applications and wants them to be tested for FIPS compliance must submit them to the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) (see https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/cryptographic-module-validation-program).

The latest FIPS 140-3 standard was approved in March 2019 and replaces 140-2.

28.2 When to enable FIPS mode Edit source

Warning
Warning: FIPS requires expertise

Administering FIPS is complex and requires significant expertise. Implementing it correctly, testing and troubleshooting all require a high degree of knowledge.

Only run your openSUSE Leap in FIPS mode when it is required to meet compliance rules. Otherwise, we do not recommend running your systems in FIPS mode.

Below are some reasons to not use FIPS mode (if not required explicitly):

  • FIPS is restrictive. It enforces the use of specific validated cryptographic algorithms and specific certified binaries that implement these validated algorithms. You must use only the certified binaries.

  • Upgrades may break functionality.

  • The approval process is very long, so certified binaries are always several releases behind the newest release.

  • Certified binaries, such as ssh, sshd and sftp-server, run their own self-checks at start-up and run only when these checks succeed. This creates a small performance degradation.

  • Administering FIPS is complex and requires significant expertise.

28.3 MD5 not supported in Samba/CIFS Edit source

According to the FIPS standards, MD5 is not a secure hashing algorithm, and it must not be used for authentication. If you run a FIPS-compliant network environment, and you have clients or servers that run in FIPS-compliant mode, you must use a Kerberos service for authenticating Samba/CIFS users. This is necessary as all other Samba authentication modes include MD5.

→Part V Confining privileges with AppArmor←Chapter 27 Common Criteria
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