What are differences I will see if I boot system with "fips=1" option and if I boot system with "fips=4" option.

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • What are differences I will see when I boot system in different levels, i.e. level 1,2,3,4 . If level 2 to 4 talks about physical security , so by booting system with level 1 and booting system with level 4 does make any difference?

  • Level 1 says about at least one FIPS compliant cryptographic standard should be used where as level 4 talks about physical security for module.

  • Does RHEL has the software cryptographic modules? If yes, how to ensure physical security to software module? If not then why RHEL allowed to boot system in "fips=4" when there is no hardware module?

  • Following links show the for RHEL cryptographic module has "overall_level" is 1.

    http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2012.htm

    http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2013.htm

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase of over 48,000 articles and solutions.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In
Close

Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.