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

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