5.2.3 Ensure SSH LogLevel is set to INFO (Scored)
Profile Applicability
Level 1 - Server Level 1 - Workstation
Description
The INFO
parameter specifies that login and logout activity will be logged.
Rationale
SSH provides several logging levels with varying amounts of verbosity. DEBUG
is specifically not recommended other than strictly for debugging SSH communications since it provides so much data that it is difficult to identify important security information. INFO
level is the basic level that only records login activity of SSH users. In many situations, such as Incident Response, it is important to determine when a particular user was active on a system. The logout record can eliminate those users who disconnected, which helps narrow the field.
Audit
Run the following command and verify that output matches:
# grep "^LogLevel" /etc/ssh/sshd_config LogLevel INFO
Remediation
Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config
file to set the parameter as follows:
LogLevel INFO