Chapter 11. Managing FIPS Mode Support

Red Hat Directory Server fully supports the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2. When Directory Server runs in FIPS mode, security-related settings change. For example, SSL is automatically disabled and only TLS 1.2 and 1.3 encryption is used.
For general details about FIPS, see Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Security hardening documentation.

Enabling FIPS Mode Support

To enable FIPS mode support for Directory Server:
  1. Optionally, enable FIPS mode in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For details, see the corresponding section in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Security hardening documentation.
  2. Enable FIPS mode for the network security services (NSS) database: 
    # modutil -dbdir /etc/dirsrv/slapd-instance_name/ -fips true
  3. Restart the Directory Server instance: 
    # dsctl instance_name restart

Disabling FIPS Mode Support

To disable FIPS mode support for Directory Server:
  1. Disable FIPS mode for the network security services (NSS) database: 
    # modutil -dbdir /etc/dirsrv/slapd-instance_name/ -fips false
  2. Restart the Directory Server instance: 
    # dsctl instance_name restart