Chapter 18. Scanning the system for security compliance and vulnerabilities


18.1. Configuration compliance tools in RHEL

You can perform a fully automated compliance audit in Red Hat Enterprise Linux by using the following configuration compliance tools. These tools are based on the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) standard and are designed for automated tailoring of compliance policies.

SCAP Workbench
The scap-workbench graphical utility is designed to perform configuration and vulnerability scans on a single local or remote system. You can also use it to generate security reports based on these scans and evaluations.
OpenSCAP

The OpenSCAP library, with the accompanying oscap command-line utility, is designed to perform configuration and vulnerability scans on a local system, to validate configuration compliance content, and to generate reports and guides based on these scans and evaluations.

Important

You can experience memory-consumption problems while using OpenSCAP, which can cause stopping the program prematurely and prevent generating any result files. See the OpenSCAP memory-consumption problems Knowledgebase article for details.

SCAP Security Guide (SSG)
The scap-security-guide package provides collections of security policies for Linux systems. The guidance consists of a catalog of practical hardening advice, linked to government requirements where applicable. The project bridges the gap between generalized policy requirements and specific implementation guidelines.
Script Check Engine (SCE)
With SCE, which is an extension to the SCAP protocol, administrators can write their security content by using a scripting language, such as Bash, Python, and Ruby. The SCE extension is provided in the openscap-engine-sce package. The SCE itself is not part of the SCAP standard.

To perform automated compliance audits on multiple systems remotely, you can use the OpenSCAP solution for Red Hat Satellite.

18.2. Red Hat Security Advisories OVAL feed

Red Hat Enterprise Linux security auditing capabilities are based on the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) standard. SCAP is a multi-purpose framework of specifications that supports automated configuration, vulnerability and patch checking, technical control compliance activities, and security measurement.

SCAP specifications create an ecosystem where the format of security content is well-known and standardized although the implementation of the scanner or policy editor is not mandated. This enables organizations to build their security policy (SCAP content) once, no matter how many security vendors they employ.

The Open Vulnerability Assessment Language (OVAL) is the essential and oldest component of SCAP. Unlike other tools and custom scripts, OVAL describes a required state of resources in a declarative manner. OVAL code is never executed directly but using an OVAL interpreter tool called scanner. The declarative nature of OVAL ensures that the state of the assessed system is not accidentally modified.

Like all other SCAP components, OVAL is based on XML. The SCAP standard defines several document formats. Each of them includes a different kind of information and serves a different purpose.

Red Hat Product Security helps customers evaluate and manage risk by tracking and investigating all security issues affecting Red Hat customers. It provides timely and concise patches and security advisories on the Red Hat Customer Portal. Red Hat creates and supports OVAL patch definitions, providing machine-readable versions of our security advisories.

Because of differences between platforms, versions, and other factors, Red Hat Product Security qualitative severity ratings of vulnerabilities do not directly align with the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) baseline ratings provided by third parties. Therefore, we recommend that you use the RHSA OVAL definitions instead of those provided by third parties.

The RHSA OVAL definitions are available individually and as a complete package, and are updated within an hour of a new security advisory being made available on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Each OVAL patch definition maps one-to-one to a Red Hat Security Advisory (RHSA). Because an RHSA can contain fixes for multiple vulnerabilities, each vulnerability is listed separately by its Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) name and has a link to its entry in our public bug database.

The RHSA OVAL definitions are designed to check for vulnerable versions of RPM packages installed on a system. It is possible to extend these definitions to include further checks, for example, to find out if the packages are being used in a vulnerable configuration. These definitions are designed to cover software and updates shipped by Red Hat. Additional definitions are required to detect the patch status of third-party software.

Note

The Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux compliance service helps IT security and compliance administrators to assess, monitor, and report on the security policy compliance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. You can also create and manage your SCAP security policies entirely within the compliance service UI.

18.3. Vulnerability scanning

18.3.1. Red Hat Security Advisories OVAL feed

Red Hat Enterprise Linux security auditing capabilities are based on the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) standard. SCAP is a multi-purpose framework of specifications that supports automated configuration, vulnerability and patch checking, technical control compliance activities, and security measurement.

SCAP specifications create an ecosystem where the format of security content is well-known and standardized although the implementation of the scanner or policy editor is not mandated. This enables organizations to build their security policy (SCAP content) once, no matter how many security vendors they employ.

The Open Vulnerability Assessment Language (OVAL) is the essential and oldest component of SCAP. Unlike other tools and custom scripts, OVAL describes a required state of resources in a declarative manner. OVAL code is never executed directly but using an OVAL interpreter tool called scanner. The declarative nature of OVAL ensures that the state of the assessed system is not accidentally modified.

Like all other SCAP components, OVAL is based on XML. The SCAP standard defines several document formats. Each of them includes a different kind of information and serves a different purpose.

Red Hat Product Security helps customers evaluate and manage risk by tracking and investigating all security issues affecting Red Hat customers. It provides timely and concise patches and security advisories on the Red Hat Customer Portal. Red Hat creates and supports OVAL patch definitions, providing machine-readable versions of our security advisories.

Because of differences between platforms, versions, and other factors, Red Hat Product Security qualitative severity ratings of vulnerabilities do not directly align with the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) baseline ratings provided by third parties. Therefore, we recommend that you use the RHSA OVAL definitions instead of those provided by third parties.

The RHSA OVAL definitions are available individually and as a complete package, and are updated within an hour of a new security advisory being made available on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Each OVAL patch definition maps one-to-one to a Red Hat Security Advisory (RHSA). Because an RHSA can contain fixes for multiple vulnerabilities, each vulnerability is listed separately by its Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) name and has a link to its entry in our public bug database.

The RHSA OVAL definitions are designed to check for vulnerable versions of RPM packages installed on a system. It is possible to extend these definitions to include further checks, for example, to find out if the packages are being used in a vulnerable configuration. These definitions are designed to cover software and updates shipped by Red Hat. Additional definitions are required to detect the patch status of third-party software.

Note

The Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux compliance service helps IT security and compliance administrators to assess, monitor, and report on the security policy compliance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. You can also create and manage your SCAP security policies entirely within the compliance service UI.

18.3.2. Scanning the system for vulnerabilities

The oscap command-line utility enables you to scan local systems, validate configuration compliance content, and generate reports and guides based on these scans and evaluations. This utility serves as a front end to the OpenSCAP library and groups its functionalities to modules (sub-commands) based on the type of SCAP content it processes.

Prerequisites

  • The openscap-scanner and bzip2 packages are installed.

Procedure

  1. Download the latest RHSA OVAL definitions for your system:

    # wget -O - https://www.redhat.com/security/data/oval/v2/RHEL8/rhel-8.oval.xml.bz2 | bzip2 --decompress > rhel-8.oval.xml
  2. Scan the system for vulnerabilities and save results to the vulnerability.html file:

    # oscap oval eval --report vulnerability.html rhel-8.oval.xml

Verification

  • Check the results in a browser of your choice, for example:

    $ firefox vulnerability.html &

You can check remote systems for vulnerabilities with the OpenSCAP scanner by using the oscap-ssh tool over the SSH protocol.

Prerequisites

  • The openscap-utils and bzip2 packages are installed on the system you use for scanning.
  • The openscap-scanner package is installed on the remote systems.
  • The SSH server is running on the remote systems.

Procedure

  1. Download the latest RHSA OVAL definitions for your system:

    # wget -O - https://www.redhat.com/security/data/oval/v2/RHEL8/rhel-8.oval.xml.bz2 | bzip2 --decompress > rhel-8.oval.xml
  2. Scan a remote system for vulnerabilities and save the results to a file:

    # oscap-ssh <username>@<hostname> <port> oval eval --report <scan-report.html> rhel-8.oval.xml

    Replace:

    • <username>@<hostname> with the user name and host name of the remote system.
    • <port> with the port number through which you can access the remote system, for example, 22.
    • <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results.

18.4. Configuration compliance scanning

18.4.1. Configuration compliance in RHEL

You can use configuration compliance scanning to conform to a baseline defined by a specific organization. For example, if you work with the US government, you might have to align your systems with the Operating System Protection Profile (OSPP), and if you are a payment processor, you might have to align your systems with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). You can also perform configuration compliance scanning to harden your system security.

Red Hat recommends you follow the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) content provided in the SCAP Security Guide package because it is in line with Red Hat best practices for affected components.

The SCAP Security Guide package provides content which conforms to the SCAP 1.2 and SCAP 1.3 standards. The openscap scanner utility is compatible with both SCAP 1.2 and SCAP 1.3 content provided in the SCAP Security Guide package.

Important

Performing a configuration compliance scanning does not guarantee the system is compliant.

The SCAP Security Guide suite provides profiles for several platforms in a form of data stream documents. A data stream is a file that contains definitions, benchmarks, profiles, and individual rules. Each rule specifies the applicability and requirements for compliance. RHEL provides several profiles for compliance with security policies. In addition to the industry standard, Red Hat data streams also contain information for remediation of failed rules.

Structure of compliance scanning resources

Data stream
   ├── xccdf
   |      ├── benchmark
   |            ├── profile
   |            |    ├──rule reference
   |            |    └──variable
   |            ├── rule
   |                 ├── human readable data
   |                 ├── oval reference
   ├── oval          ├── ocil reference
   ├── ocil          ├── cpe reference
   └── cpe           └── remediation

A profile is a set of rules based on a security policy, such as OSPP, PCI-DSS, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This enables you to audit the system in an automated way for compliance with security standards.

You can modify (tailor) a profile to customize certain rules, for example, password length. For more information about profile tailoring, see Customizing a security profile with SCAP Workbench.

18.4.2. Possible results of an OpenSCAP scan

Depending on the data stream and profile applied to an OpenSCAP scan, as well as various properties of your system, each rule may produce a specific result. These are the possible results with brief explanations of their meanings:

Pass
The scan did not find any conflicts with this rule.
Fail
The scan found a conflict with this rule.
Not checked
OpenSCAP does not perform an automatic evaluation of this rule. Check whether your system conforms to this rule manually.
Not applicable
This rule does not apply to the current configuration.
Not selected
This rule is not part of the profile. OpenSCAP does not evaluate this rule and does not display these rules in the results.
Error
The scan encountered an error. For additional information, you can enter the oscap command with the --verbose DEVEL option. File a support case on the Red Hat customer portal or open a ticket in the RHEL project in Red Hat Jira.
Unknown
The scan encountered an unexpected situation. For additional information, you can enter the oscap command with the `--verbose DEVEL option. File a support case on the Red Hat customer portal or open a ticket in the RHEL project in Red Hat Jira.

Before you decide to use profiles for scanning or remediation, you can list them and check their detailed descriptions using the oscap info subcommand.

Prerequisites

  • The openscap-scanner and scap-security-guide packages are installed.

Procedure

  1. List all available files with security compliance profiles provided by the SCAP Security Guide project:

    $ ls /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/
    ssg-firefox-cpe-dictionary.xml  ssg-rhel6-ocil.xml
    ssg-firefox-cpe-oval.xml        ssg-rhel6-oval.xml
    …
    ssg-rhel6-ds-1.2.xml          ssg-rhel8-oval.xml
    ssg-rhel8-ds.xml              ssg-rhel8-xccdf.xml
    …
  2. Display detailed information about a selected data stream using the oscap info subcommand. XML files containing data streams are indicated by the -ds string in their names. In the Profiles section, you can find a list of available profiles and their IDs:

    $ oscap info /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml
    Profiles:
    …
      Title: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
        Id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_hipaa
      Title: PCI-DSS v3.2.1 Control Baseline for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
        Id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_pci-dss
      Title: OSPP - Protection Profile for General Purpose Operating Systems
        Id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_ospp
    …
  3. Select a profile from the data stream file and display additional details about the selected profile. To do so, use oscap info with the --profile option followed by the last section of the ID displayed in the output of the previous command. For example, the ID of the HIPPA profile is xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_hipaa, and the value for the --profile option is hipaa:

    $ oscap info --profile hipaa /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml
    …
    Profile
    	Title: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
    
    	Description: The HIPAA Security Rule establishes U.S. national standards to protect individuals’ electronic personal health information that is created, received, used, or maintained by a covered entity.
    …

You can determine whether your system or a remote system conforms to a specific baseline, and save the results in a report by using the oscap command-line tool.

Prerequisites

  • The openscap-scanner and scap-security-guide packages are installed.
  • You know the ID of the profile within the baseline with which the system should comply. To find the ID, see the Viewing profiles for configuration compliance section.

Procedure

  1. Scan the local system for compliance with the selected profile and save the scan results to a file:

    $ oscap xccdf eval --report <scan-report.html> --profile <profileID> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace:

    • <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results.
    • <profileID> with the profile ID with which the system should comply, for example, hipaa.
  2. Optional: Scan a remote system for compliance with the selected profile and save the scan results to a file:

    $ oscap-ssh <username>@<hostname> <port> xccdf eval --report <scan-report.html> --profile <profileID> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace:

    • <username>@<hostname> with the user name and host name of the remote system.
    • <port> with the port number through which you can access the remote system.
    • <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results.
    • <profileID> with the profile ID with which the system should comply, for example, hipaa.

You can remediate the RHEL system to align with a specific baseline. You can remediate the system to align with any profile provided by the SCAP Security Guide. For the details on listing the available profiles, see the Viewing profiles for configuration compliance section.

Warning

If not used carefully, running the system evaluation with the Remediate option enabled might render the system non-functional. Red Hat does not provide any automated method to revert changes made by security-hardening remediations. Remediations are supported on RHEL systems in the default configuration. If your system has been altered after the installation, running remediation might not make it compliant with the required security profile.

Prerequisites

  • The scap-security-guide package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Remediate the system by using the oscap command with the --remediate option:

    # oscap xccdf eval --profile <profileID> --remediate /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace <profileID> with the profile ID with which the system should comply, for example, hipaa.

  2. Restart your system.

Verification

  1. Evaluate compliance of the system with the profile, and save the scan results to a file:

    $ oscap xccdf eval --report <scan-report.html> --profile <profileID> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace:

    • <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results.
    • <profileID> with the profile ID with which the system should comply, for example, hipaa.

You can remediate your system to align with a specific baseline by using an Ansible Playbook file from the SCAP Security Guide project. You can remediate to align with any profile provided by the SCAP Security Guide.

Warning

If not used carefully, running the system evaluation with the Remediate option enabled might render the system non-functional. Red Hat does not provide any automated method to revert changes made by security-hardening remediations. Remediations are supported on RHEL systems in the default configuration. If your system has been altered after the installation, running remediation might not make it compliant with the required security profile.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Remediate your system to align with a selected profile by using Ansible:

    # ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH=/usr/share/rhc-worker-playbook/ansible/collections/ansible_collections/ ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local /usr/share/scap-security-guide/ansible/rhel8-playbook-<profileID>.yml

    The ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH environment variable is necessary for the command to run the playbook.

    Replace <profileID> with the profile ID of the selected profile.

  2. Restart the system.

Verification

  • Evaluate the compliance of the system with the selected profile, and save the scan results to a file:

    # oscap xccdf eval --profile <profileID> --report <scan-report.html> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results.

You can create an Ansible Playbook that contains only the remediations that are required to align your system with a specific baseline. This playbook is smaller because it does not cover already satisfied requirements. Creating the playbook does not modify your system in any way, you only prepare a file for later application.

Note

In RHEL 8.6, Ansible Engine is replaced by the ansible-core package, which contains only built-in modules. Note that many Ansible remediations use modules from the community and Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) collections, which are not included in the built-in modules. In this case, you can use Bash remediations as a substitute for Ansible remediations. The Red Hat Connector in RHEL 8.6 includes the Ansible modules necessary for the remediation playbooks to function with Ansible Core.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Scan the system and save the results:

    # oscap xccdf eval --profile <profileID> --results <profile-results.xml> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml
  2. Find the value of the result ID in the file with the results:

    # oscap info <profile-results.xml>
  3. Generate an Ansible Playbook based on the file generated in step 1:

    # oscap xccdf generate fix --fix-type ansible --result-id xccdf_org.open-scap_testresult_xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_<profileID> --output <profile-remediations.yml> <profile-results.xml>
  4. Review that the generated <profile-remediations.yml> file contains Ansible remediations for rules that failed in the scan performed in step 1.
  5. Remediate your system to align with a selected profile by using Ansible:

    # ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH=/usr/share/rhc-worker-playbook/ansible/collections/ansible_collections/ ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local <profile-remediations.yml>`

    The ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH environment variable is necessary for the command to run the playbook.

    Warning

    If not used carefully, running the system evaluation with the Remediate option enabled might render the system non-functional. Red Hat does not provide any automated method to revert changes made by security-hardening remediations. Remediations are supported on RHEL systems in the default configuration. If your system has been altered after the installation, running remediation might not make it compliant with the required security profile.

Verification

  • Evaluate the compliance of the system with the selected profile, and save the scan results to a file:

    # oscap xccdf eval --profile <profileID> --report <scan-report.html> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results.

Use this procedure to create a Bash script containing remediations that align your system with a security profile such as HIPAA. Using the following steps, you do not do any modifications to your system, you only prepare a file for later application.

Prerequisites

  • The scap-security-guide package is installed on your RHEL system.

Procedure

  1. Use the oscap command to scan the system and to save the results to an XML file. In the following example, oscap evaluates the system against the hipaa profile:

    # oscap xccdf eval --profile hipaa --results <hipaa-results.xml> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml
  2. Find the value of the result ID in the file with the results:

    # oscap info <hipaa-results.xml>
  3. Generate a Bash script based on the results file generated in step 1:

    # oscap xccdf generate fix --fix-type bash --result-id <xccdf_org.open-scap_testresult_xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_hipaa> --output <hipaa-remediations.sh> <hipaa-results.xml>
  4. The <hipaa-remediations.sh> file contains remediations for rules that failed during the scan performed in step 1. After reviewing this generated file, you can apply it with the ./<hipaa-remediations.sh> command when you are in the same directory as this file.

Verification

  • In a text editor of your choice, review that the <hipaa-remediations.sh> file contains rules that failed in the scan performed in step 1.

SCAP Workbench, which is contained in the scap-workbench package, is a graphical utility that enables users to perform configuration and vulnerability scans on a single local or a remote system, perform remediation of the system, and generate reports based on scan evaluations. Note that SCAP Workbench has limited functionality compared with the oscap command-line utility. SCAP Workbench processes security content in the form of data stream files.

To evaluate your system against the selected security policy, use the following procedure.

Prerequisites

  • The scap-workbench package is installed on your system.

Procedure

  1. To run SCAP Workbench from the GNOME Classic desktop environment, press the Super key to enter the Activities Overview, type scap-workbench, and then press Enter. Alternatively, use:

    $ scap-workbench &
  2. Select a security policy using either of the following options:

    • Load Content button on the starting window
    • Open content from SCAP Security Guide
    • Open Other Content in the File menu, and search the respective XCCDF, SCAP RPM, or data stream file.

      scap workbench start
  3. You can allow automatic correction of the system configuration by selecting the Remediate check box. With this option enabled, SCAP Workbench attempts to change the system configuration in accordance with the security rules applied by the policy. This process should fix the related checks that fail during the system scan.

    Warning

    If not used carefully, running the system evaluation with the Remediate option enabled might render the system non-functional. Red Hat does not provide any automated method to revert changes made by security-hardening remediations. Remediations are supported on RHEL systems in the default configuration. If your system has been altered after the installation, running remediation might not make it compliant with the required security profile.

  4. Scan your system with the selected profile by clicking the Scan button.

    scap workbench results
  5. To store the scan results in form of an XCCDF, ARF, or HTML file, click the Save Results combo box. Choose the HTML Report option to generate the scan report in human-readable format. The XCCDF and ARF (data stream) formats are suitable for further automatic processing. You can repeatedly choose all three options.
  6. To export results-based remediations to a file, use the Generate remediation role pop-up menu.

You can customize a security profile by changing parameters in certain rules (for example, minimum password length), removing rules that you cover in a different way, and selecting additional rules, to implement internal policies. You cannot define new rules by customizing a profile.

The following procedure demonstrates the use of SCAP Workbench for customizing (tailoring) a profile. You can also save the tailored profile for use with the oscap command-line utility.

Prerequisites

  • The scap-workbench package is installed on your system.

Procedure

  1. Run SCAP Workbench, and select the profile to customize by using either Open content from SCAP Security Guide or Open Other Content in the File menu.
  2. To adjust the selected security profile according to your needs, click the Customize button.

    This opens the new Customization window that enables you to modify the currently selected profile without changing the original data stream file. Choose a new profile ID.

    Choosing the ID of your new profile
  3. Find a rule to modify using either the tree structure with rules organized into logical groups or the Search field.
  4. Include or exclude rules using check boxes in the tree structure, or modify values in rules where applicable.

    Customizing a rule in the OSPP profile
  5. Confirm the changes by clicking the OK button.
  6. To store your changes permanently, use one of the following options:

    • Save a customization file separately by using Save Customization Only in the File menu.
    • Save all security content at once by Save All in the File menu.

      If you select the Into a directory option, SCAP Workbench saves both the data stream file and the customization file to the specified location. You can use this as a backup solution.

      By selecting the As RPM option, you can instruct SCAP Workbench to create an RPM package containing the data stream file and the customization file. This is useful for distributing the security content to systems that cannot be scanned remotely, and for delivering the content for further processing.

Note

Because SCAP Workbench does not support results-based remediations for tailored profiles, use the exported remediations with the oscap command-line utility.

Use this procedure to find security vulnerabilities in a container or a container image.

Note

The oscap-podman command is available from RHEL 8.2. For RHEL 8.1 and 8.0, use the workaround described in the Using OpenSCAP for scanning containers in RHEL 8 Knowledgebase article.

Prerequisites

  • The openscap-utils and bzip2 packages are installed.

Procedure

  1. Download the latest RHSA OVAL definitions for your system:

    # wget -O - https://www.redhat.com/security/data/oval/v2/RHEL8/rhel-8.oval.xml.bz2 | bzip2 --decompress > rhel-8.oval.xml
  2. Get the ID of a container or a container image, for example:

    # podman images
    REPOSITORY                            TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
    registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi   latest   096cae65a207   7 weeks ago   239 MB
  3. Scan the container or the container image for vulnerabilities and save results to the vulnerability.html file:

    # oscap-podman 096cae65a207 oval eval --report vulnerability.html rhel-8.oval.xml

    Note that the oscap-podman command requires root privileges, and the ID of a container is the first argument.

Verification

  • Check the results in a browser of your choice, for example:

    $ firefox vulnerability.html &

You can assess the compliance of your container or a container image with a specific security baseline, such as Operating System Protection Profile (OSPP), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Note

The oscap-podman command is available from RHEL 8.2. For RHEL 8.1 and 8.0, use the workaround described in the Using OpenSCAP for scanning containers in RHEL 8 Knowledgebase article.

Prerequisites

  • The openscap-utils and scap-security-guide packages are installed.
  • You have root access to the system.

Procedure

  1. Find the ID of a container or a container image:

    1. To find the ID of a container, enter the podman ps -a command.
    2. To find the ID of a container image, enter the podman images command.
  2. Evaluate the compliance of the container or container image with a profile and save the scan results into a file:

    # oscap-podman <ID> xccdf eval --report <scan-report.html> --profile <profileID> /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel8-ds.xml

    Replace:

    • <ID> with the ID of your container or container image
    • <scan-report.html> with the file name where oscap saves the scan results
    • <profileID> with the profile ID with which the system should comply, for example, hipaa, ospp, or pci-dss

Verification

  • Check the results in a browser of your choice, for example:

    $ firefox <scan-report.html> &
Note

The rules marked as notapplicable apply only to bare-metal and virtualized systems and not to containers or container images.

18.12. Checking integrity with AIDE

Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) is a utility that creates a database of files on the system, and then uses that database to ensure file integrity and detect system intrusions.

18.12.1. Installing AIDE

To start file-integrity checking with AIDE, you must install the corresponding package and initiate the AIDE database.

Prerequisites

  • The AppStream repository is enabled.

Procedure

  1. Install the aide package:

    # yum install aide
  2. Generate an initial database:

    # aide --init
    Start timestamp: 2024-07-08 10:39:23 -0400 (AIDE 0.16)
    AIDE initialized database at /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz
    
    Number of entries:	55856
    
    ---------------------------------------------------
    The attributes of the (uncompressed) database(s):
    ---------------------------------------------------
    
    /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz
    …
      SHA512   : mZaWoGzL2m6ZcyyZ/AXTIowliEXWSZqx
                 IFYImY4f7id4u+Bq8WeuSE2jasZur/A4
                 FPBFaBkoCFHdoE/FW/V94Q==
  3. Optional: In the default configuration, the aide --init command checks just a set of directories and files defined in the /etc/aide.conf file. To include additional directories or files in the AIDE database, and to change their watched parameters, edit /etc/aide.conf accordingly.
  4. To start using the database, remove the .new substring from the initial database file name:

    # mv /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz /var/lib/aide/aide.db.gz
  5. Optional: To change the location of the AIDE database, edit the /etc/aide.conf file and modify the DBDIR value. For additional security, store the database, configuration, and the /usr/sbin/aide binary file in a secure location such as a read-only media.

18.12.2. Performing integrity checks with AIDE

You can use the crond service to schedule regular file-integrity checks with AIDE.

Prerequisites

  • AIDE is properly installed and its database is initialized. See Installing AIDE

Procedure

  1. To initiate a manual check:

    # aide --check
    Start timestamp: 2024-07-08 10:43:46 -0400 (AIDE 0.16)
    AIDE found differences between database and filesystem!!
    
    Summary:
      Total number of entries:	55856
      Added entries:		0
      Removed entries:		0
      Changed entries:		1
    
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Changed entries:
    ---------------------------------------------------
    
    f   ...      ..S : /root/.viminfo
    
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Detailed information about changes:
    ---------------------------------------------------
    
    File: /root/.viminfo
      SELinux  : system_u:object_r:admin_home_t:s | unconfined_u:object_r:admin_home
                 0                                | _t:s0
    …
  2. At a minimum, configure the system to run AIDE weekly. Optimally, run AIDE daily. For example, to schedule a daily execution of AIDE at 04:05 a.m. by using the cron command, add the following line to the /etc/crontab file:

     05 4 * * * root /usr/sbin/aide --check

18.12.3. Updating an AIDE database

After verifying the changes of your system, such as package updates or configuration files adjustments, update also your baseline AIDE database.

Prerequisites

  • AIDE is properly installed and its database is initialized. See Installing AIDE

Procedure

  1. Update your baseline AIDE database:

    # aide --update

    The aide --update command creates the /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz database file.

  2. To start using the updated database for integrity checks, remove the .new substring from the file name.

18.12.4. File-integrity tools: AIDE and IMA

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides several tools for checking and preserving the integrity of files and directories on your system. The following table helps you decide which tool better fits your scenario.

Expand
Table 18.1. Comparison between AIDE and IMA
QuestionAdvanced Intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE)Integrity Measurement Architecture (IMA)

What

AIDE is a utility that creates a database of files and directories on the system. This database serves for checking file integrity and detect intrusion detection.

IMA detects if a file is altered by checking file measurement (hash values) compared to previously stored extended attributes.

How

AIDE uses rules to compare the integrity state of the files and directories.

IMA uses file hash values to detect the intrusion.

Why

Detection - AIDE detects if a file is modified by verifying the rules.

Detection and Prevention - IMA detects and prevents an attack by replacing the extended attribute of a file.

Usage

AIDE detects a threat when the file or directory is modified.

IMA detects a threat when someone tries to alter the entire file.

Extension

AIDE checks the integrity of files and directories on the local system.

IMA ensures security on the local and remote systems.

18.13. Encrypting block devices using LUKS

By using the disk encryption, you can protect the data on a block device by encrypting it. To access the device’s decrypted contents, enter a passphrase or key as authentication. This is important for mobile computers and removable media because it helps to protect the device’s contents even if it has been physically removed from the system. The LUKS format is a default implementation of block device encryption in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

18.13.1. LUKS disk encryption

Linux Unified Key Setup-on-disk-format (LUKS) provides a set of tools that simplifies managing the encrypted devices. With LUKS, you can encrypt block devices and enable multiple user keys to decrypt a master key. For bulk encryption of the partition, use this master key.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses LUKS to perform block device encryption. By default, the option to encrypt the block device is unchecked during the installation. If you select the option to encrypt your disk, the system prompts you for a passphrase every time you boot the computer. This passphrase unlocks the bulk encryption key that decrypts your partition. If you want to modify the default partition table, you can select the partitions that you want to encrypt. This is set in the partition table settings.

Ciphers

The default cipher used for LUKS is aes-xts-plain64. The default key size for LUKS is 512 bits. The default key size for LUKS with Anaconda XTS mode is 512 bits. The following are the available ciphers:

  • Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
  • Twofish
  • Serpent

Operations performed by LUKS

  • LUKS encrypts entire block devices and is therefore well-suited for protecting contents of mobile devices such as removable storage media or laptop disk drives.
  • The underlying contents of the encrypted block device are arbitrary, which makes it useful for encrypting swap devices. This can also be useful with certain databases that use specially formatted block devices for data storage.
  • LUKS uses the existing device mapper kernel subsystem.
  • LUKS provides passphrase strengthening, which protects against dictionary attacks.
  • LUKS devices contain multiple key slots, which means you can add backup keys or passphrases.
Important

LUKS is not recommended for the following scenarios:

  • Disk-encryption solutions such as LUKS protect the data only when your system is off. After the system is on and LUKS has decrypted the disk, the files on that disk are available to anyone who have access to them.
  • Scenarios that require multiple users to have distinct access keys to the same device. The LUKS1 format provides eight key slots and LUKS2 provides up to 32 key slots.
  • Applications that require file-level encryption.

18.13.2. LUKS versions in RHEL

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the default format for LUKS encryption is LUKS2. The old LUKS1 format remains fully supported and it is provided as a format compatible with earlier Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases. LUKS2 re-encryption is considered more robust and safe to use as compared to LUKS1 re-encryption.

The LUKS2 format enables future updates of various parts without a need to modify binary structures. Internally it uses JSON text format for metadata, provides redundancy of metadata, detects metadata corruption, and automatically repairs from a metadata copy.

Important

Do not use LUKS2 in systems that support only LUKS1 because LUKS2 and LUKS1 use different commands to encrypt the disk. Using the wrong command for a LUKS version might cause data loss.

Expand
Table 18.2. Encryption commands depending on the LUKS version
LUKS versionEncryption command

LUKS2

cryptsetup reencrypt

LUKS1

cryptsetup-reencrypt

Online re-encryption

The LUKS2 format supports re-encrypting encrypted devices while the devices are in use. For example, you do not have to unmount the file system on the device to perform the following tasks:

  • Changing the volume key
  • Changing the encryption algorithm

    When encrypting a non-encrypted device, you must still unmount the file system. You can remount the file system after a short initialization of the encryption.

    The LUKS1 format does not support online re-encryption.

Conversion

In certain situations, you can convert LUKS1 to LUKS2. The conversion is not possible specifically in the following scenarios:

  • A LUKS1 device is marked as being used by a Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) Clevis solution. The cryptsetup tool does not convert the device when some luksmeta metadata are detected.
  • A device is active. The device must be in an inactive state before any conversion is possible.

LUKS2 provides several options that prioritize performance or data protection during the re-encryption process. It provides the following modes for the resilience option, and you can select any of these modes by using the cryptsetup reencrypt --resilience resilience-mode /dev/<device_ID> command, where you can replace <device_ID> with the ID of your device.

checksum

The default mode. It balances data protection and performance.

This mode stores individual checksums of the sectors in the re-encryption area, which the recovery process can detect for the sectors that were re-encrypted by LUKS2. The mode requires that the block device sector write is atomic.

journal
The safest mode but also the slowest. Since this mode journals the re-encryption area in the binary area, the LUKS2 writes the data twice.
none
The none mode prioritizes performance and provides no data protection. It protects the data only against safe process termination, such as the SIGTERM signal or the user pressing Ctrl+C key. Any unexpected system failure or application failure might result in data corruption.

If a LUKS2 re-encryption process terminates unexpectedly by force, LUKS2 can perform the recovery in one of the following ways:

Automatically

By performing any one of the following actions triggers the automatic recovery action during the next LUKS2 device open action:

  • Executing the cryptsetup open command.
  • Attaching the device with the systemd-cryptsetup command.
Manually
By using the cryptsetup repair /dev/<device_ID> command on the LUKS2 device.

You can encrypt the existing data on a not yet encrypted device by using the LUKS2 format. A new LUKS header is stored in the head of the device.

Prerequisites

  • The block device has a file system.
  • You have backed up your data.

    Warning

    You might lose your data during the encryption process due to a hardware, kernel, or human failure. Ensure that you have a reliable backup before you start encrypting the data.

Procedure

  1. Unmount all file systems on the device that you plan to encrypt, for example:

    # umount /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
  2. Make free space for storing a LUKS header. Use one of the following options that suits your scenario:

    • In the case of encrypting a logical volume, you can extend the logical volume without resizing the file system. For example:

      # lvextend -L+32M /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
    • Extend the partition by using partition management tools, such as parted.
    • Shrink the file system on the device. You can use the resize2fs utility for the ext2, ext3, or ext4 file systems. Note that you cannot shrink the XFS file system.
  3. Initialize the encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --encrypt --init-only --reduce-device-size 32M /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00 lv00_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted is now active and ready for online encryption.
  4. Mount the device:

    # mount /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted /mnt/lv00_encrypted
  5. Add an entry for a persistent mapping to the /etc/crypttab file:

    1. Find the luksUUID:

      # cryptsetup luksUUID /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
      
      a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325
    2. Open /etc/crypttab in a text editor of your choice and add a device in this file:

      $ vi /etc/crypttab
      
      lv00_encrypted UUID=a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325 none

      Replace a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325 with your device’s luksUUID.

    3. Refresh initramfs with dracut:

      $ dracut -f --regenerate-all
  6. Add an entry for a persistent mounting to the /etc/fstab file:

    1. Find the file system’s UUID of the active LUKS block device:

      $ blkid -p /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted
      
      /dev/mapper/lv00-encrypted: UUID="37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="xfs" USAGE="filesystem"
    2. Open /etc/fstab in a text editor of your choice and add a device in this file, for example:

      $ vi /etc/fstab
      
      UUID=37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9 /home auto rw,user,auto 0

      Replace 37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9 with your file system’s UUID.

  7. Resume the online encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --resume-only /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
    
    Enter passphrase for /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00:
    Auto-detected active dm device 'lv00_encrypted' for data device /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00.
    Finished, time 00:31.130, 10272 MiB written, speed 330.0 MiB/s

Verification

  1. Verify if the existing data was encrypted:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
    
    LUKS header information
    Version: 2
    Epoch: 4
    Metadata area: 16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area: 16744448 [bytes]
    UUID: a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325
    Label: (no label)
    Subsystem: (no subsystem)
    Flags: (no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
    	offset: 33554432 [bytes]
    	length: (whole device)
    	cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    [...]
  2. View the status of the encrypted blank block device:

    # cryptsetup status lv00_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00

You can encrypt existing data on a block device without creating free space for storing a LUKS header. The header is stored in a detached location, which also serves as an additional layer of security. The procedure uses the LUKS2 encryption format.

Prerequisites

  • The block device has a file system.
  • Your data is backed up.

    Warning

    You might lose your data during the encryption process due to a hardware, kernel, or human failure. Ensure that you have a reliable backup before you start encrypting the data.

Procedure

  1. Unmount all file systems on the device, for example:

    # umount /dev/<nvme0n1p1>

    Replace <nvme0n1p1> with the device identifier corresponding to the partition you want to unmount.

  2. Initialize the encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --encrypt --init-only --header </home/header> /dev/<nvme0n1p1> <nvme_encrypted>
    
    WARNING!
    ========
    Header file does not exist, do you want to create it?
    
    Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES
    Enter passphrase for </home/header>:
    Verify passphrase:
    /dev/mapper/<nvme_encrypted> is now active and ready for online encryption.

    Replace:

    • </home/header> with a path to the file with a detached LUKS header. The detached LUKS header has to be accessible to unlock the encrypted device later.
    • <nvme_encrypted> with the name of the device mapper that is created after encryption.
  3. Mount the device:

    # mount /dev/mapper/<nvme_encrypted> /mnt/<nvme_encrypted>
  4. Add an entry for a persistent mapping to the /etc/crypttab file:

    # <nvme_encrypted> /dev/disk/by-id/<nvme-partition-id> none header=</home/header>

    Replace <nvme-partition-id> with the identifier of the NVMe partition.

  5. Regenerate initramfs with dracut:

    # dracut -f --regenerate-all -v
  6. Add an entry for a persistent mounting to the /etc/fstab file:

    1. Find the file system’s UUID of the active LUKS block device:

      $ blkid -p /dev/mapper/<nvme_encrypted>
      
      /dev/mapper/<nvme_encrypted>: UUID="37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="xfs" USAGE="filesystem"
    2. Open /etc/fstab in a text editor and add a device in this file, for example:

      UUID=<file_system_UUID> /home auto rw,user,auto 0

      Replace <file_system_UUID> with the file system’s UUID found in the previous step.

  7. Resume the online encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --resume-only --header </home/header> /dev/<nvme0n1p1>
    
    Enter passphrase for /dev/<nvme0n1p1>:
    Auto-detected active dm device '<nvme_encrypted>' for data device /dev/<nvme0n1p1>.
    Finished, time 00m51s,   10 GiB written, speed 198.2 MiB/s

Verification

  1. Verify if the existing data on a block device using LUKS2 with a detached header is encrypted:

    # cryptsetup luksDump </home/header>
    
    LUKS header information
    Version:       	2
    Epoch:         	88
    Metadata area: 	16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area: 	16744448 [bytes]
    UUID:          	c4f5d274-f4c0-41e3-ac36-22a917ab0386
    Label:         	(no label)
    Subsystem:     	(no subsystem)
    Flags:       	(no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
    	offset: 0 [bytes]
    	length: (whole device)
    	cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    	sector: 512 [bytes]
    [...]
  2. View the status of the encrypted blank block device:

    # cryptsetup status <nvme_encrypted>
    
    /dev/mapper/<nvme_encrypted> is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/<nvme0n1p1>

You can encrypt a blank block device, which you can use for an encrypted storage by using the LUKS2 format.

Prerequisites

  • A blank block device. You can use commands such as lsblk to find if there is no real data on that device, for example, a file system.

Procedure

  1. Setup a partition as an encrypted LUKS partition:

    # cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p1
    
    WARNING!
    ========
    This will overwrite data on /dev/nvme0n1p1 irrevocably.
    Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES
    Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p1:
    Verify passphrase:
  2. Open an encrypted LUKS partition:

    # cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p1 nvme0n1p1_encrypted
    
    Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p1:

    This unlocks the partition and maps it to a new device by using the device mapper. To not overwrite the encrypted data, this command alerts the kernel that the device is an encrypted device and addressed through LUKS by using the /dev/mapper/device_mapped_name path.

  3. Create a file system to write encrypted data to the partition, which must be accessed through the device mapped name:

    # mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_encrypted
  4. Mount the device:

    # mount /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_encrypted mount-point

Verification

  1. Verify if the blank block device is encrypted:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/nvme0n1p1
    
    LUKS header information
    Version:       	2
    Epoch:         	3
    Metadata area: 	16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area: 	16744448 [bytes]
    UUID:          	34ce4870-ffdf-467c-9a9e-345a53ed8a25
    Label:         	(no label)
    Subsystem:     	(no subsystem)
    Flags:       	(no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
    	offset: 16777216 [bytes]
    	length: (whole device)
    	cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    	sector: 512 [bytes]
    [...]
  2. View the status of the encrypted blank block device:

    # cryptsetup status nvme0n1p1_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_encrypted is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/nvme0n1p1
      sector size:  512
      offset:  32768 sectors
      size:    20938752 sectors
      mode:    read/write

If you want to add encryption to an existing logical volume on your system, you can only do so through formatting the volume.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 8 web console.
  • You have enabled the cockpit service.
  • Your user account is allowed to log in to the web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • Available existing logical volume without encryption.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. In the panel, click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the menu button for the storage device you want to encrypt and click Format.
  4. In the Encryption field, select the encryption specification, LUKS1 or LUKS2.
  5. Set and confirm your new passphrase.
  6. Optional: Modify further encryption options.
  7. Finalize formatting settings.
  8. Click Format.

Change a LUKS passphrase on an encrypted disk or partition in the web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 8 web console.
  • You have enabled the cockpit service.
  • Your user account is allowed to log in to the web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. In the panel, click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, select the disk with encrypted data.
  4. On the disk page, scroll to the Keys section and click the edit button.
  5. In the Change passphrase dialog window:

    1. Enter your current passphrase.
    2. Enter your new passphrase.
    3. Confirm your new passphrase.
  6. Click Save.

Change a LUKS passphrase on an encrypted disk or partition by using the command line. With the cryptsetup utility, you can control the encryption process with a variety of configuration options and functions, and integrate it in existing automation workflows.

Prerequisites

  • You have root privileges or permissions to enter administrative commands with sudo.

Procedure

  1. Change the existing passphrase on the LUKS encrypted device:

    # cryptsetup luksChangeKey /dev/<device_ID>

    Replace <device_ID> with the device designator, for example, sda.

    If you have multiple key slots configured, you can specify the slot to work with:

    # cryptsetup luksChangeKey /dev/<device_ID> --key-slot <slot_number>

    Replace <slot_number> with the number of the key slot you want to modify.

  2. Insert the current passphrase and the new passphrase:

    Enter passphrase to be changed:
    Enter new passphrase:
    Verify passphrase:
  3. Validate the new passphrase:

    # cryptsetup --verbose open --test-passphrase /dev/<device_ID>

Verification

  1. Verify that the new passphrase can unlock the device:

    Enter passphrase for /dev/<device_ID>:
    Key slot <slot_number> unlocked.
    Command successful.

You can use the storage role to create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS by running an Ansible playbook.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Store your sensitive variables in an encrypted file:

    1. Create the vault:

      $ ansible-vault create ~/vault.yml
      New Vault password: <vault_password>
      Confirm New Vault password: <vault_password>
    2. After the ansible-vault create command opens an editor, enter the sensitive data in the <key>: <value> format:

      luks_password: <password>
    3. Save the changes, and close the editor. Ansible encrypts the data in the vault.
  2. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Manage local storage
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      vars_files:
        - ~/vault.yml
      tasks:
        - name: Create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: redhat.rhel_system_roles.storage
          vars:
            storage_volumes:
              - name: barefs
                type: disk
                disks:
                  - sdb
                fs_type: xfs
                fs_label: <label>
                mount_point: /mnt/data
                encryption: true
                encryption_password: "{{ luks_password }}"

    For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file on the control node.

  3. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  4. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass ~/playbook.yml

Verification

  1. Find the luksUUID value of the LUKS encrypted volume:

    # ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m command -a 'cryptsetup luksUUID /dev/sdb'
    
    4e4e7970-1822-470e-b55a-e91efe5d0f5c
  2. View the encryption status of the volume:

    # ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m command -a 'cryptsetup status luks-4e4e7970-1822-470e-b55a-e91efe5d0f5c'
    
    /dev/mapper/luks-4e4e7970-1822-470e-b55a-e91efe5d0f5c is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/sdb
    ...
  3. Verify the created LUKS encrypted volume:

    # ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m command -a 'cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sdb'
    
    LUKS header information
    Version:        2
    Epoch:          3
    Metadata area:  16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area:  16744448 [bytes]
    UUID:           4e4e7970-1822-470e-b55a-e91efe5d0f5c
    Label:          (no label)
    Subsystem:      (no subsystem)
    Flags:          (no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
            offset: 16777216 [bytes]
            length: (whole device)
            cipher: aes-xts-plain64
            sector: 512 [bytes]
    ...

Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) is a collection of technologies that enable unlocking encrypted root and secondary volumes of hard drives on physical and virtual machines. PBD uses a variety of unlocking methods, such as user passwords, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) device, a PKCS #11 device connected to a system, for example, a smart card, or a special network server.

PBD allows combining different unlocking methods into a policy, which makes it possible to unlock the same volume in different ways. The current implementation of the PBD in RHEL consists of the Clevis framework and plug-ins called pins. Each pin provides a separate unlocking capability. Currently, the following pins are available:

tang
Allows unlocking volumes by using a network server.
tpm2
Allows unlocking volumes by using a TPM2 policy.
sss
Allows deploying high-availability systems by using the Shamir’s Secret Sharing (SSS) cryptographic scheme.

18.14.1. Network-bound disk encryption

The Network Bound Disc Encryption (NBDE) is a subcategory of Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) that allows binding encrypted volumes to a special network server. The current implementation of the NBDE includes a Clevis pin for the Tang server and the Tang server itself.

In RHEL, NBDE is implemented through the following components and technologies:

Figure 18.1. NBDE scheme when using a LUKS1-encrypted volume. The luksmeta package is not used for LUKS2 volumes.

Network-Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE)

Tang is a server for binding data to network presence. It makes a system containing your data available when the system is bound to a certain secure network. Tang is stateless and does not require TLS or authentication. Unlike escrow-based solutions, where the server stores all encryption keys and has knowledge of every key ever used, Tang never interacts with any client keys, so it never gains any identifying information from the client.

Clevis is a pluggable framework for automated decryption. In NBDE, Clevis provides automated unlocking of LUKS volumes. The clevis package provides the client side of the feature.

A Clevis pin is a plug-in into the Clevis framework. One of such pins is a plug-in that implements interactions with the NBDE server - Tang.

Clevis and Tang are generic client and server components that provide network-bound encryption. In RHEL, they are used in conjunction with LUKS to encrypt and decrypt root and non-root storage volumes to accomplish Network-Bound Disk Encryption.

Both client- and server-side components use the José library to perform encryption and decryption operations.

When you begin provisioning NBDE, the Clevis pin for Tang server gets a list of the Tang server’s advertised asymmetric keys. Alternatively, since the keys are asymmetric, a list of Tang’s public keys can be distributed out of band so that clients can operate without access to the Tang server. This mode is called offline provisioning.

The Clevis pin for Tang uses one of the public keys to generate a unique, cryptographically-strong encryption key. Once the data is encrypted using this key, the key is discarded. The Clevis client should store the state produced by this provisioning operation in a convenient location. This process of encrypting data is the provisioning step.

The LUKS version 2 (LUKS2) is the default disk-encryption format in RHEL, hence, the provisioning state for NBDE is stored as a token in a LUKS2 header. The leveraging of provisioning state for NBDE by the luksmeta package is used only for volumes encrypted with LUKS1.

The Clevis pin for Tang supports both LUKS1 and LUKS2 without specification need. Clevis can encrypt plain-text files but you have to use the cryptsetup tool for encrypting block devices. See the Encrypting block devices using LUKS for more information.

When the client is ready to access its data, it loads the metadata produced in the provisioning step and it responds to recover the encryption key. This process is the recovery step.

In NBDE, Clevis binds a LUKS volume using a pin so that it can be automatically unlocked. After successful completion of the binding process, the disk can be unlocked using the provided Dracut unlocker.

Note

If the kdump kernel crash dumping mechanism is set to save the content of the system memory to a LUKS-encrypted device, you are prompted for entering a password during the second kernel boot.

You can use a Tang server to automatically unlock LUKS-encrypted volumes on Clevis-enabled clients. In the minimalistic scenario, you deploy a Tang server on port 80 by installing the tang package and entering the systemctl enable tangd.socket --now command. The following example procedure demonstrates the deployment of a Tang server running on a custom port as a confined service in SELinux enforcing mode.

Prerequisites

  • The policycoreutils-python-utils package and its dependencies are installed.
  • The firewalld service is running.

Procedure

  1. To install the tang package and its dependencies, enter the following command as root:

    # yum install tang
  2. Pick an unoccupied port, for example, 7500/tcp, and allow the tangd service to bind to that port:

    # semanage port -a -t tangd_port_t -p tcp 7500

    Note that a port can be used only by one service at a time, and thus an attempt to use an already occupied port implies the ValueError: Port already defined error message.

  3. Open the port in the firewall:

    # firewall-cmd --add-port=7500/tcp
    # firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
  4. Enable the tangd service:

    # systemctl enable tangd.socket
  5. Create an override file:

    # systemctl edit tangd.socket
  6. In the following editor screen, which opens an empty override.conf file located in the /etc/systemd/system/tangd.socket.d/ directory, change the default port for the Tang server from 80 to the previously picked number by adding the following lines:

    [Socket]
    ListenStream=
    ListenStream=7500
    Important

    Insert the previous code snippet between the lines starting with # Anything between here and # Lines below this, otherwise the system discards your changes.

  7. Save the changes and exit the editor. In the default vi editor, you can do that by pressing Esc to switch into command mode, entering :wq, and pressing Enter.
  8. Reload the changed configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
  9. Check that your configuration is working:

    # systemctl show tangd.socket -p Listen
    Listen=[::]:7500 (Stream)
  10. Start the tangd service:

    # systemctl restart tangd.socket

    Because tangd uses the systemd socket activation mechanism, the server starts as soon as the first connection comes in. A new set of cryptographic keys is automatically generated at the first start. To perform cryptographic operations such as manual key generation, use the jose utility.

Verification

  • On your NBDE client, verify that your Tang server works correctly by using the following command. The command must return the identical message you pass for encryption and decryption:

    # echo test | clevis encrypt tang '{"url":"<tang.server.example.com:7500>"}' -y | clevis decrypt
    test

For security reasons, rotate your Tang server keys and update existing bindings on clients periodically. The precise interval at which you should rotate them depends on your application, key sizes, and institutional policy.

Alternatively, you can rotate Tang keys by using the nbde_server RHEL system role. See Using the nbde_server system role for setting up multiple Tang servers for more information.

Prerequisites

  • A Tang server is running.
  • The clevis and clevis-luks packages are installed on your clients.
  • Note that clevis luks list, clevis luks report, and clevis luks regen have been introduced in RHEL 8.2.

Procedure

  1. Rename all keys in the /var/db/tang key database directory to have a leading . to hide them from advertisement. Note that the file names in the following example differs from unique file names in the key database directory of your Tang server:

    # cd /var/db/tang
    # ls -l
    -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 349 Feb  7 14:55 UV6dqXSwe1bRKG3KbJmdiR020hY.jwk
    -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 354 Feb  7 14:55 y9hxLTQSiSB5jSEGWnjhY8fDTJU.jwk
    # mv UV6dqXSwe1bRKG3KbJmdiR020hY.jwk .UV6dqXSwe1bRKG3KbJmdiR020hY.jwk
    # mv y9hxLTQSiSB5jSEGWnjhY8fDTJU.jwk .y9hxLTQSiSB5jSEGWnjhY8fDTJU.jwk
  2. Check that you renamed and therefore hid all keys from the Tang server advertisement:

    # ls -l
    total 0
  3. Generate new keys using the /usr/libexec/tangd-keygen command in /var/db/tang on the Tang server:

    # /usr/libexec/tangd-keygen /var/db/tang
    # ls /var/db/tang
    3ZWS6-cDrCG61UPJS2BMmPU4I54.jwk zyLuX6hijUy_PSeUEFDi7hi38.jwk
  4. Check that your Tang server advertises the signing key from the new key pair, for example:

    # tang-show-keys 7500
    3ZWS6-cDrCG61UPJS2BMmPU4I54
  5. On your NBDE clients, use the clevis luks report command to check if the keys advertised by the Tang server remains the same. You can identify slots with the relevant binding using the clevis luks list command, for example:

    # clevis luks list -d /dev/sda2
    1: tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv"}'
    # clevis luks report -d /dev/sda2 -s 1
    ...
    Report detected that some keys were rotated.
    Do you want to regenerate luks metadata with "clevis luks regen -d /dev/sda2 -s 1"? [ynYN]
  6. To regenerate LUKS metadata for the new keys either press y to the prompt of the previous command, or use the clevis luks regen command:

    # clevis luks regen -d /dev/sda2 -s 1
  7. When you are sure that all old clients use the new keys, you can remove the old keys from the Tang server, for example:

    # cd /var/db/tang
    # rm .*.jwk
Warning

Removing the old keys while clients are still using them can result in data loss. If you accidentally remove such keys, use the clevis luks regen command on the clients, and provide your LUKS password manually.

You can configure automated unlocking of a LUKS-encrypted storage device using a key provided by a Tang server.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 8 web console.
  • You have enabled the cockpit service.
  • Your user account is allowed to log in to the web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged and clevis-luks packages are installed on your system.
  • The cockpit.socket service is running at port 9090.
  • A Tang server is available. See Deploying a Tang server with SELinux in enforcing mode for details.
  • You have root privileges or permissions to enter administrative commands with sudo.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Switch to administrative access, provide your credentials, and click Storage. In the Storage table, click the disk that contains an encrypted volume you plan to add to unlock automatically.
  3. In the following page with details of the selected disk, click + in the Keys section to add a Tang key:

    RHEL web console: Encryption
  4. Select Tang keyserver as Key source, provide the address of your Tang server, and a password that unlocks the LUKS-encrypted device. Click Add to confirm:

    RHEL web console: Add Tang key

    The following dialog window provides a command to verify that the key hash matches.

  5. In a terminal on the Tang server, use the tang-show-keys command to display the key hash for comparison. In this example, the Tang server is running on the port 7500:

    # tang-show-keys 7500
    x100_1k6GPiDOaMlL3WbpCjHOy9ul1bSfdhI3M08wO0
  6. Click Trust key when the key hashes in the web console and in the output of previously listed commands are the same:

    RHEL web console: Verify Tang key
  7. In RHEL 8.8 and later, after you select an encrypted root file system and a Tang server, you can skip adding the rd.neednet=1 parameter to the kernel command line, installing the clevis-dracut package, and regenerating an initial RAM disk (initrd). For non-root file systems, the web console now enables the remote-cryptsetup.target and clevis-luks-akspass.path systemd units, installs the clevis-systemd package, and adds the _netdev parameter to the fstab and crypttab configuration files.

Verification

  1. Check that the newly added Tang key is now listed in the Keys section with the Keyserver type:

    RHEL web console: A keyserver key is listed
  2. Verify that the bindings are available for the early boot, for example:

    # lsinitrd | grep clevis-luks
    lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           48 Jan  4 02:56 etc/systemd/system/cryptsetup.target.wants/clevis-luks-askpass.path -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/clevis-luks-askpass.path
    …

The Clevis framework can encrypt plain-text files and decrypt both ciphertexts in the JSON Web Encryption (JWE) format and LUKS-encrypted block devices. Clevis clients can use either Tang network servers or Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM 2.0) chips for cryptographic operations.

The following commands demonstrate the basic functionality provided by Clevis on examples containing plain-text files. You can also use them for troubleshooting your NBDE or Clevis+TPM deployments.

Encryption client bound to a Tang server

  • To check that a Clevis encryption client binds to a Tang server, use the clevis encrypt tang sub-command:

    $ clevis encrypt tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv:port"}' < input-plain.txt > secret.jwe
    The advertisement contains the following signing keys:
    
    _OsIk0T-E2l6qjfdDiwVmidoZjA
    
    Do you wish to trust these keys? [ynYN] y

    Change the http://tang.srv:port URL in the previous example to match the URL of the server where tang is installed. The secret.jwe output file contains your encrypted cipher text in the JWE format. This cipher text is read from the input-plain.txt input file.

    Alternatively, if your configuration requires a non-interactive communication with a Tang server without SSH access, you can download an advertisement and save it to a file:

    $ curl -sfg http://tang.srv:port/adv -o adv.jws

    Use the advertisement in the adv.jws file for any following tasks, such as encryption of files or messages:

    $ echo 'hello' | clevis encrypt tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv:port","adv":"adv.jws"}'
  • To decrypt data, use the clevis decrypt command and provide the cipher text (JWE):

    $ clevis decrypt < secret.jwe > output-plain.txt

Encryption client using TPM 2.0

  • To encrypt using a TPM 2.0 chip, use the clevis encrypt tpm2 sub-command with the only argument in form of the JSON configuration object:

    $ clevis encrypt tpm2 '{}' < input-plain.txt > secret.jwe

    To choose a different hierarchy, hash, and key algorithms, specify configuration properties, for example:

    $ clevis encrypt tpm2 '{"hash":"sha256","key":"rsa"}' < input-plain.txt > secret.jwe
  • To decrypt the data, provide the ciphertext in the JSON Web Encryption (JWE) format:

    $ clevis decrypt < secret.jwe > output-plain.txt

The pin also supports sealing data to a Platform Configuration Registers (PCR) state. That way, the data can only be unsealed if the PCR hashes values match the policy used when sealing.

For example, to seal the data to the PCR with index 0 and 7 for the SHA-256 bank:

$ clevis encrypt tpm2 '{"pcr_bank":"sha256","pcr_ids":"0,7"}' < input-plain.txt > secret.jwe
Warning

Hashes in PCRs can be rewritten, and you no longer can unlock your encrypted volume. For this reason, add a strong passphrase that enable you to unlock the encrypted volume manually even when a value in a PCR changes.

If the system cannot automatically unlock your encrypted volume after an upgrade of the shim-x64 package, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution Clevis TPM2 no longer decrypts LUKS devices after a restart.

With the Clevis framework, you can configure clients for automated unlocking of LUKS-encrypted volumes when a selected Tang server is available. This creates an NBDE (Network-Bound Disk Encryption) deployment.

Prerequisites

  • A Tang server is running and available.

Procedure

  1. To automatically unlock an existing LUKS-encrypted volume, install the clevis-luks subpackage:

    # yum install clevis-luks
  2. Identify the LUKS-encrypted volume for PBD. In the following example, the block device is referred as /dev/sda2:

    # lsblk
    NAME                                          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
    sda                                             8:0    0    12G  0 disk
    ├─sda1                                          8:1    0     1G  0 part  /boot
    └─sda2                                          8:2    0    11G  0 part
      └─luks-40e20552-2ade-4954-9d56-565aa7994fb6 253:0    0    11G  0 crypt
        ├─rhel-root                               253:0    0   9.8G  0 lvm   /
        └─rhel-swap                               253:1    0   1.2G  0 lvm   [SWAP]
  3. Bind the volume to a Tang server using the clevis luks bind command:

    # clevis luks bind -d /dev/sda2 tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv"}'
    The advertisement contains the following signing keys:
    
    _OsIk0T-E2l6qjfdDiwVmidoZjA
    
    Do you wish to trust these keys? [ynYN] y
    You are about to initialize a LUKS device for metadata storage.
    Attempting to initialize it may result in data loss if data was
    already written into the LUKS header gap in a different format.
    A backup is advised before initialization is performed.
    
    Do you wish to initialize /dev/sda2? [yn] y
    Enter existing LUKS password:

    This command performs four steps:

    1. Creates a new key with the same entropy as the LUKS master key.
    2. Encrypts the new key with Clevis.
    3. Stores the Clevis JWE object in the LUKS2 header token or uses LUKSMeta if the non-default LUKS1 header is used.
    4. Enables the new key for use with LUKS.
    Note

    The binding procedure assumes that there is at least one free LUKS password slot. The clevis luks bind command takes one of the slots.

    The volume can now be unlocked with your existing password as well as with the Clevis policy.

  4. To enable the early boot system to process the disk binding, use the dracut tool on an already installed system. In RHEL, Clevis produces a generic initrd (initial RAM disk) without host-specific configuration options and does not automatically add parameters such as rd.neednet=1 to the kernel command line. If your configuration relies on a Tang pin that requires network during early boot, use the --hostonly-cmdline argument and dracut adds rd.neednet=1 when it detects a Tang binding:

    1. Install the clevis-dracut package:

      # yum install clevis-dracut
    2. Regenerate the initial RAM disk:

      # dracut -fv --regenerate-all --hostonly-cmdline
    3. Alternatively, create a .conf file in the /etc/dracut.conf.d/ directory, and add the hostonly_cmdline=yes option to the file. Then, you can use dracut without --hostonly-cmdline, for example:

      # echo "hostonly_cmdline=yes" > /etc/dracut.conf.d/clevis.conf
      # dracut -fv --regenerate-all
    4. You can also ensure that networking for a Tang pin is available during early boot by using the grubby tool on the system where Clevis is installed:

      # grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="rd.neednet=1"

Verification

  1. Verify that the Clevis JWE object is successfully placed in a LUKS header, use the clevis luks list command:

    # clevis luks list -d /dev/sda2
    1: tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv:port"}'
  2. Check that the bindings are available for the early boot, for example:

    # lsinitrd | grep clevis-luks
    lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           48 Jan  4 02:56 etc/systemd/system/cryptsetup.target.wants/clevis-luks-askpass.path -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/clevis-luks-askpass.path
    …

To use NBDE for clients with static IP configuration (without DHCP), you must pass your network configuration to the dracut tool manually.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. You can provide your static network configuration as a value for the kernel-cmdline option in a dracut command, for example:

    # dracut -fv --regenerate-all --kernel-cmdline "ip=192.0.2.10::192.0.2.1:255.255.255.0::ens3:none nameserver=192.0.2.100"
  2. Alternatively, create a .conf file in the /etc/dracut.conf.d/ directory with the static network information and then, regenerate the initial RAM disk image:

    # cat /etc/dracut.conf.d/static_ip.conf
    kernel_cmdline="ip=192.0.2.10::192.0.2.1:255.255.255.0::ens3:none nameserver=192.0.2.100"
    # dracut -fv --regenerate-all

You can configure unlocking of LUKS-encrypted volumes by using a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM 2.0) policy.

Prerequisites

  • An accessible TPM 2.0-compatible device.
  • A system with the 64-bit Intel or 64-bit AMD architecture.

Procedure

  1. To automatically unlock an existing LUKS-encrypted volume, install the clevis-luks subpackage:

    # yum install clevis-luks
  2. Identify the LUKS-encrypted volume for PBD. In the following example, the block device is referred as /dev/sda2:

    # lsblk
    NAME                                          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
    sda                                             8:0    0    12G  0 disk
    ├─sda1                                          8:1    0     1G  0 part  /boot
    └─sda2                                          8:2    0    11G  0 part
      └─luks-40e20552-2ade-4954-9d56-565aa7994fb6 253:0    0    11G  0 crypt
        ├─rhel-root                               253:0    0   9.8G  0 lvm   /
        └─rhel-swap                               253:1    0   1.2G  0 lvm   [SWAP]
  3. Bind the volume to a TPM 2.0 device using the clevis luks bind command, for example:

    # clevis luks bind -d /dev/sda2 tpm2 '{"hash":"sha256","key":"rsa"}'
    ...
    Do you wish to initialize /dev/sda2? [yn] y
    Enter existing LUKS password:

    This command performs four steps:

    1. Creates a new key with the same entropy as the LUKS master key.
    2. Encrypts the new key with Clevis.
    3. Stores the Clevis JWE object in the LUKS2 header token or uses LUKSMeta if the non-default LUKS1 header is used.
    4. Enables the new key for use with LUKS.

      Note

      The binding procedure assumes that there is at least one free LUKS password slot. The clevis luks bind command takes one of the slots.

      Alternatively, if you want to seal data to specific Platform Configuration Registers (PCR) states, add the pcr_bank and pcr_ids values to the clevis luks bind command, for example:

      # clevis luks bind -d /dev/sda2 tpm2 '{"hash":"sha256","key":"rsa","pcr_bank":"sha256","pcr_ids":"0,1"}'
      Important

      Because the data can only be unsealed if PCR hashes values match the policy used when sealing and the hashes can be rewritten, add a strong passphrase that enable you to unlock the encrypted volume manually when a value in a PCR changes.

      If the system cannot automatically unlock your encrypted volume after upgrading the shim-x64 package, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution Clevis TPM2 no longer decrypts LUKS devices after a restart.

  4. The volume can now be unlocked with your existing password as well as with the Clevis policy.
  5. To enable the early boot system to process the disk binding, use the dracut tool on an already installed system:

    # yum install clevis-dracut
    # dracut -fv --regenerate-all

Verification

  1. To verify that the Clevis JWE object is successfully placed in a LUKS header, use the clevis luks list command:

    # clevis luks list -d /dev/sda2
    1: tpm2 '{"hash":"sha256","key":"rsa"}'

Use the following procedure for manual removing the metadata created by the clevis luks bind command and also for wiping a key slot that contains passphrase added by Clevis.

Important

The recommended way to remove a Clevis pin from a LUKS-encrypted volume is through the clevis luks unbind command. The removal procedure using clevis luks unbind consists of only one step and works for both LUKS1 and LUKS2 volumes. The following example command removes the metadata created by the binding step and wipe the key slot 1 on the /dev/sda2 device:

# clevis luks unbind -d /dev/sda2 -s 1

Prerequisites

  • A LUKS-encrypted volume with a Clevis binding.

Procedure

  1. Check which LUKS version the volume, for example /dev/sda2, is encrypted by and identify a slot and a token that is bound to Clevis:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sda2
    LUKS header information
    Version:        2
    ...
    Keyslots:
      0: luks2
    ...
    1: luks2
          Key:        512 bits
          Priority:   normal
          Cipher:     aes-xts-plain64
    ...
          Tokens:
            0: clevis
                  Keyslot:  1
    ...

    In the previous example, the Clevis token is identified by 0 and the associated key slot is 1.

  2. In case of LUKS2 encryption, remove the token:

    # cryptsetup token remove --token-id 0 /dev/sda2
  3. If your device is encrypted by LUKS1, which is indicated by the Version: 1 string in the output of the cryptsetup luksDump command, perform this additional step with the luksmeta wipe command:

    # luksmeta wipe -d /dev/sda2 -s 1
  4. Wipe the key slot containing the Clevis passphrase:

    # cryptsetup luksKillSlot /dev/sda2 1

Follow the steps in this procedure to configure an automated installation process that uses Clevis for the enrollment of LUKS-encrypted volumes.

Procedure

  1. Instruct Kickstart to partition the disk such that LUKS encryption has enabled for all mount points, other than /boot, with a temporary password. The password is temporary for this step of the enrollment process.

    part /boot --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=256
    part / --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --grow --encrypted --passphrase=temppass

    Note that OSPP-compliant systems require a more complex configuration, for example:

    part /boot --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=256
    part / --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=2048 --encrypted --passphrase=temppass
    part /var --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=1024 --encrypted --passphrase=temppass
    part /tmp --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=1024 --encrypted --passphrase=temppass
    part /home --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=2048 --grow --encrypted --passphrase=temppass
    part /var/log --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=1024 --encrypted --passphrase=temppass
    part /var/log/audit --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=vda --size=1024 --encrypted --passphrase=temppass
  2. Install the related Clevis packages by listing them in the %packages section:

    %packages
    clevis-dracut
    clevis-luks
    clevis-systemd
    %end
  3. Optional: To ensure that you can unlock the encrypted volume manually when required, add a strong passphrase before you remove the temporary passphrase. For more information, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution How to add a passphrase, key, or keyfile to an existing LUKS device.
  4. Call clevis luks bind to perform binding in the %post section. Afterward, remove the temporary password:

    %post
    clevis luks bind -y -k - -d /dev/vda2 \
    tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv"}' <<< "temppass"
    cryptsetup luksRemoveKey /dev/vda2 <<< "temppass"
    dracut -fv --regenerate-all
    %end

    If your configuration relies on a Tang pin that requires network during early boot or you use NBDE clients with static IP configurations, you have to modify the dracut command as described in Configuring manual enrollment of LUKS-encrypted volumes.

    Note that the -y option for the clevis luks bind command is available from RHEL 8.3. In RHEL 8.2 and older, replace -y by -f in the clevis luks bind command and download the advertisement from the Tang server:

    %post
    curl -sfg http://tang.srv/adv -o adv.jws
    clevis luks bind -f -k - -d /dev/vda2 \
    tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv","adv":"adv.jws"}' <<< "temppass"
    cryptsetup luksRemoveKey /dev/vda2 <<< "temppass"
    dracut -fv --regenerate-all
    %end
    Warning

    The cryptsetup luksRemoveKey command prevents any further administration of a LUKS2 device on which you apply it. You can recover a removed master key using the dmsetup command only for LUKS1 devices.

You can use an analogous procedure when using a TPM 2.0 policy instead of a Tang server.

You can set up an automated unlocking process of a LUKS-encrypted USB storage device.

Procedure

  1. To automatically unlock a LUKS-encrypted removable storage device, such as a USB drive, install the clevis-udisks2 package:

    # yum install clevis-udisks2
  2. Reboot the system, and then perform the binding step using the clevis luks bind command as described in Configuring manual enrollment of LUKS-encrypted volumes, for example:

    # clevis luks bind -d /dev/sdb1 tang '{"url":"http://tang.srv"}'
  3. The LUKS-encrypted removable device can be now unlocked automatically in your GNOME desktop session. The device bound to a Clevis policy can be also unlocked by the clevis luks unlock command:

    # clevis luks unlock -d /dev/sdb1

You can use an analogous procedure when using a TPM 2.0 policy instead of a Tang server.

18.14.12. Deploying high-availability NBDE systems

Tang provides two methods for building a high-availability deployment:

Client redundancy (recommended)
Clients should be configured with the ability to bind to multiple Tang servers. In this setup, each Tang server has its own keys and clients can decrypt by contacting a subset of these servers. Clevis already supports this workflow through its sss plug-in. Red Hat recommends this method for a high-availability deployment.
Key sharing
For redundancy purposes, more than one instance of Tang can be deployed. To set up a second or any subsequent instance, install the tang packages and copy the key directory to the new host using rsync over SSH. Note that Red Hat does not recommend this method because sharing keys increases the risk of key compromise and requires additional automation infrastructure.
High-available NBDE using Shamir’s Secret Sharing

Shamir’s Secret Sharing (SSS) is a cryptographic scheme that divides a secret into several unique parts. To reconstruct the secret, a number of parts is required. The number is called threshold and SSS is also referred to as a thresholding scheme.

Clevis provides an implementation of SSS. It creates a key and divides it into a number of pieces. Each piece is encrypted using another pin including even SSS recursively. Additionally, you define the threshold t. If an NBDE deployment decrypts at least t pieces, then it recovers the encryption key and the decryption process succeeds. When Clevis detects a smaller number of parts than specified in the threshold, it prints an error message.

Example 1: Redundancy with two Tang servers

The following command decrypts a LUKS-encrypted device when at least one of two Tang servers is available:

# clevis luks bind -d /dev/sda1 sss '{"t":1,"pins":{"tang":[{"url":"http://tang1.srv"},{"url":"http://tang2.srv"}]}}'

The previous command used the following configuration scheme:

{
    "t":1,
    "pins":{
        "tang":[
            {
                "url":"http://tang1.srv"
            },
            {
                "url":"http://tang2.srv"
            }
        ]
    }
}

In this configuration, the SSS threshold t is set to 1 and the clevis luks bind command successfully reconstructs the secret if at least one from two listed tang servers is available.

Example 2: Shared secret on a Tang server and a TPM device

The following command successfully decrypts a LUKS-encrypted device when both the tang server and the tpm2 device are available:

# clevis luks bind -d /dev/sda1 sss '{"t":2,"pins":{"tang":[{"url":"http://tang1.srv"}], "tpm2": {"pcr_ids":"0,7"}}}'

The configuration scheme with the SSS threshold 't' set to '2' is now:

{
    "t":2,
    "pins":{
        "tang":[
            {
                "url":"http://tang1.srv"
            }
        ],
        "tpm2":{
            "pcr_ids":"0,7"
        }
    }
}

The clevis luks bind command does not change the LUKS master key. This implies that if you create a LUKS-encrypted image for use in a virtual machine or cloud environment, all the instances that run this image share a master key. This is extremely insecure and should be avoided at all times.

This is not a limitation of Clevis but a design principle of LUKS. If your scenario requires having encrypted root volumes in a cloud, perform the installation process (usually using Kickstart) for each instance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud as well. The images cannot be shared without also sharing a LUKS master key.

To deploy automated unlocking in a virtualized environment, use systems such as lorax or virt-install together with a Kickstart file (see Configuring automated enrollment of LUKS-encrypted volumes using Kickstart) or another automated provisioning tool to ensure that each encrypted VM has a unique master key.

Deploying automatically-enrollable encrypted images in a cloud environment can provide a unique set of challenges. Like other virtualization environments, it is recommended to reduce the number of instances started from a single image to avoid sharing the LUKS master key.

Therefore, the best practice is to create customized images that are not shared in any public repository and that provide a base for the deployment of a limited amount of instances. The exact number of instances to create should be defined by deployment’s security policies and based on the risk tolerance associated with the LUKS master key attack vector.

To build LUKS-enabled automated deployments, systems such as Lorax or virt-install together with a Kickstart file should be used to ensure master key uniqueness during the image building process.

Cloud environments enable two Tang server deployment options which we consider here. First, the Tang server can be deployed within the cloud environment itself. Second, the Tang server can be deployed outside of the cloud on independent infrastructure with a VPN link between the two infrastructures.

Deploying Tang natively in the cloud does allow for easy deployment. However, given that it shares infrastructure with the data persistence layer of ciphertext of other systems, it may be possible for both the Tang server’s private key and the Clevis metadata to be stored on the same physical disk. Access to this physical disk permits a full compromise of the ciphertext data.

Important

Always maintain a physical separation between the location where the data is stored and the system where Tang is running. This separation between the cloud and the Tang server ensures that the Tang server’s private key cannot be accidentally combined with the Clevis metadata. It also provides local control of the Tang server if the cloud infrastructure is at risk.

18.14.15. Deploying Tang as a container

The tang container image provides Tang-server decryption capabilities for Clevis clients that run either in OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) clusters or in separate virtual machines.

Prerequisites

  • The podman package and its dependencies are installed on the system.
  • You have logged in on the registry.redhat.io container catalog using the podman login registry.redhat.io command. See Red Hat Container Registry Authentication for more information.
  • The Clevis client is installed on systems containing LUKS-encrypted volumes that you want to automatically unlock by using a Tang server.

Procedure

  1. Pull the tang container image from the registry.redhat.io registry:

    # podman pull registry.redhat.io/rhel8/tang
  2. Run the container, specify its port, and specify the path to the Tang keys. The previous example runs the tang container, specifies the port 7500, and indicates a path to the Tang keys of the /var/db/tang directory:

    # podman run -d -p 7500:7500 -v tang-keys:/var/db/tang --name tang registry.redhat.io/rhel8/tang

    Note that Tang uses port 80 by default but this may collide with other services such as the Apache HTTP server.

  3. Optional: For increased security, rotate the Tang keys periodically. You can use the tangd-rotate-keys script, for example:

    # podman run --rm -v tang-keys:/var/db/tang registry.redhat.io/rhel8/tang tangd-rotate-keys -v -d /var/db/tang
    Rotated key 'rZAMKAseaXBe0rcKXL1hCCIq-DY.jwk' -> .'rZAMKAseaXBe0rcKXL1hCCIq-DY.jwk'
    Rotated key 'x1AIpc6WmnCU-CabD8_4q18vDuw.jwk' -> .'x1AIpc6WmnCU-CabD8_4q18vDuw.jwk'
    Created new key GrMMX_WfdqomIU_4RyjpcdlXb0E.jwk
    Created new key _dTTfn17sZZqVAp80u3ygFDHtjk.jwk
    Keys rotated successfully.

Verification

  • On a system that contains LUKS-encrypted volumes for automated unlocking by the presence of the Tang server, check that the Clevis client can encrypt and decrypt a plain-text message using Tang:

    # echo test | clevis encrypt tang '{"url":"http://localhost:7500"}' | clevis decrypt
    The advertisement contains the following signing keys:
    
    x1AIpc6WmnCU-CabD8_4q18vDuw
    
    Do you wish to trust these keys? [ynYN] y
    test

    The previous example command shows the test string at the end of its output when a Tang server is available on the localhost URL and communicates through port 7500.

You can use the nbde_client and nbde_server RHEL system roles for automated deployments of Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) solutions using Clevis and Tang. The rhel-system-roles package contains these system roles, the related examples, and also the reference documentation.

By using the nbde_server system role, you can deploy and manage a Tang server as part of an automated disk encryption solution. This role supports the following features:

  • Rotating Tang keys
  • Deploying and backing up Tang keys

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Deploy a Tang server
      hosts: tang.server.example.com
      tasks:
      - name: Install and configure periodic key rotation
        ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: redhat.rhel_system_roles.nbde_server
        vars:
          nbde_server_rotate_keys: yes
          nbde_server_manage_firewall: true
          nbde_server_manage_selinux: true

    This example playbook ensures deploying of your Tang server and a key rotation.

    The settings specified in the example playbook include the following:

    nbde_server_manage_firewall: true
    Use the firewall system role to manage ports used by the nbde_server role.
    nbde_server_manage_selinux: true

    Use the selinux system role to manage ports used by the nbde_server role.

    For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.nbde_server/README.md file on the control node.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Verification

  • On your NBDE client, verify that your Tang server works correctly by using the following command. The command must return the identical message you pass for encryption and decryption:

    # ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m command -a 'echo test | clevis encrypt tang '{"url":"<tang.server.example.com>"}' -y | clevis decrypt'
    test

The nbde_client system role enables you to deploy multiple Clevis clients in an automated way.

This role supports binding a LUKS-encrypted volume to one or more Network-Bound (NBDE) servers - Tang servers. You can either preserve the existing volume encryption with a passphrase or remove it. After removing the passphrase, you can unlock the volume only using NBDE. This is useful when a volume is initially encrypted using a temporary key or password that you should remove after you provision the system.

If you provide both a passphrase and a key file, the role uses what you have provided first. If it does not find any of these valid, it attempts to retrieve a passphrase from an existing binding.

Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) defines a binding as a mapping of a device to a slot. This means that you can have multiple bindings for the same device. The default slot is slot 1.

Note

The nbde_client system role supports only Tang bindings. Therefore, you cannot use it for TPM2 bindings.

Prerequisites

  • You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes
  • You are logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
  • The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has sudo permissions on them.
  • A volume that is already encrypted by using LUKS.

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Configure clients for unlocking of encrypted volumes by Tang servers
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      tasks:
        - name: Create NBDE client bindings
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: redhat.rhel_system_roles.nbde_client
          vars:
            nbde_client_bindings:
              - device: /dev/rhel/root
                encryption_key_src: /etc/luks/keyfile
                nbde_client_early_boot: true
                state: present
                servers:
                  - http://server1.example.com
                  - http://server2.example.com
              - device: /dev/rhel/swap
                encryption_key_src: /etc/luks/keyfile
                servers:
                  - http://server1.example.com
                  - http://server2.example.com

    This example playbook configures Clevis clients for automated unlocking of two LUKS-encrypted volumes when at least one of two Tang servers is available.

    The settings specified in the example playbook include the following:

    state: present
    The values of state indicate the configuration after you run the playbook. Use the present value for either creating a new binding or updating an existing one. Contrary to a clevis luks bind command, you can use state: present also for overwriting an existing binding in its device slot. The absent value removes a specified binding.
    nbde_client_early_boot: true

    The nbde_client role ensures that networking for a Tang pin is available during early boot by default. If you scenario requires to disable this feature, add the nbde_client_early_boot: false variable to your playbook.

    For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.nbde_client/README.md file on the control node.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Verification

  1. On your NBDE client, check that the encrypted volume that should be automatically unlocked by your Tang servers contain the corresponding information in its LUKS pins:

    # ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m command -a 'clevis luks list -d /dev/rhel/root'
    1: tang '{"url":"<http://server1.example.com/>"}'
    2: tang '{"url":"<http://server2.example.com/>"}'
  2. If you do not use the nbde_client_early_boot: false variable, verify that the bindings are available for the early boot, for example:

    # ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m command -a 'lsinitrd | grep clevis-luks'
    lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           48 Jan  4 02:56 etc/systemd/system/cryptsetup.target.wants/clevis-luks-askpass.path -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/clevis-luks-askpass.path
    …

The nbde_client RHEL system role supports only scenarios with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). On an NBDE client with static IP configuration, you must pass your network configuration as a kernel boot parameter.

Typically, administrators want to reuse a playbook and not maintain individual playbooks for each host to which Ansible assigns static IP addresses during early boot. In this case, you can use variables in the playbook and provide the settings in an external file. As a result, you need only one playbook and one file with the settings.

Prerequisites

  • You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes
  • You are logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
  • The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has sudo permissions on them.
  • A volume that is already encrypted by using LUKS.

Procedure

  1. Create a file with the network settings of your hosts, for example, static-ip-settings-clients.yml, and add the values you want to dynamically assign to the hosts:

    clients:
      managed-node-01.example.com:
        ip_v4: 192.0.2.1
        gateway_v4: 192.0.2.254
        netmask_v4: 255.255.255.0
        interface: enp1s0
      managed-node-02.example.com:
        ip_v4: 192.0.2.2
        gateway_v4: 192.0.2.254
        netmask_v4: 255.255.255.0
        interface: enp1s0
  2. Create a playbook file, for example, ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    - name: Configure clients for unlocking of encrypted volumes by Tang servers
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com,managed-node-02.example.com
      vars_files:
        - ~/static-ip-settings-clients.yml
      tasks:
        - name: Create NBDE client bindings
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: redhat.rhel_system_roles.network
          vars:
            nbde_client_bindings:
              - device: /dev/rhel/root
                encryption_key_src: /etc/luks/keyfile
                servers:
                  - http://server1.example.com
                  - http://server2.example.com
              - device: /dev/rhel/swap
                encryption_key_src: /etc/luks/keyfile
                servers:
                  - http://server1.example.com
                  - http://server2.example.com
    
        - name: Configure a Clevis client with static IP address during early boot
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: redhat.rhel_system_roles.bootloader
          vars:
            bootloader_settings:
              - kernel: ALL
                options:
                  - name: ip
                    value: "{{ clients[inventory_hostname]['ip_v4'] }}::{{ clients[inventory_hostname]['gateway_v4'] }}:{{ clients[inventory_hostname]['netmask_v4'] }}::{{ clients[inventory_hostname]['interface'] }}:none"

    This playbook reads certain values dynamically for each host listed in the ~/static-ip-settings-clients.yml file.

    For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.network/README.md file on the control node.

  3. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  4. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml
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