FINT-4402 - Usage of SHA256/SHA512 in AIDE configuration

This information is provided as part of the Lynis community project. It is related to Lynis control FINT-4402 and should be considered as-is and without guarantees. Any advice and commands should be tested before implementing them in production environments.

Control details
CategoryFile Integrity
Application

Description

This check found that SHA256 or SHA512 were not used to create hashes of files.

How to solve

Consider using strong hashing algorithms in your AIDE configuration. MD5 and SHA1 are considered fairly weak, and hash collisions might result. This means that two different files end up in displaying the same hash. As AIDE has the focus on monitoring file integrity, strong algorithms should be used.

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Lynis is a technical security auditing tool for Unix flavors like Linux, macOS, AIX, Solaris, and *BSD. It is open source software and free to use. Typical usage include system hardening, compliance testing, and vulnerability scanning. The project has an active community, including development via GitHub.

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