Red Hat Summit1.2. Installing the system with FIPS mode enabled
To enable the cryptographic module self-checks mandated by the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140, enable FIPS mode during the system installation.
After you complete the setup of FIPS mode, you cannot switch off FIPS mode without putting the system into an inconsistent state. If your scenario requires this change, the only correct way is a complete re-installation of the system.
Procedure
Add the
fips=1option to the kernel command line at the start of the system installation when the Red Hat Enterprise Linux boot window opens and displays available boot options.On UEFI systems, press the e key, move the cursor to the end of the
linuxefikernel command line, and addfips=1to the end of this line, for example:linuxefi /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL-10-0-BaseOS-x86_64 rd.live.\ check quiet fips=1On BIOS systems, press the Tab key, move the cursor to the end of the kernel command line, and add
fips=1to the end of this line, for example:> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL-10-0-BaseOS-x86_64 rd.live.check quiet fips=1
- During the software selection stage, do not install any third-party software.
- After the installation, the system starts in FIPS mode automatically.
Verification
After the system starts, check that FIPS mode is enabled:
$ cat /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled 1
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