STIGQter: STIG Summary: Crunchy Data Postgres 16 Security Technical Implementation Guide Version: 1 Release: 3 Benchmark Date: 01 Jul 2026:

If passwords are used for authentication, PostgreSQL must transmit only encrypted representations of passwords.

DISA Rule

SV-261892r1000681_rule

Vulnerability Number

V-261892

Group Title

SRG-APP-000172-DB-000075

Rule Version

CD16-00-003900

Severity

CAT I

CCI(s)

CCI-000197 - For password-based authentication, transmit passwords only cryptographically-protected channels.

Weight

Fix Recommendation

Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment variable. Refer to APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA.

As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), edit pg_hba.conf authentication file and change all entries of "password" to "scram-sha-256":

$ sudo su - postgres
$ vi ${PGDATA?}/pg_hba.conf
host all all .example.com scram-sha-256

Check Contents

Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment variable. Refer to APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA.

As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), review the authentication entries in pg_hba.conf:

$ sudo su - postgres
$ cat ${PGDATA?}/pg_hba.conf

If any entries use the auth_method (last column in records) "password" or "md5", this is a finding.

Vulnerability Number

V-261892

Documentable

False

Rule Version

CD16-00-003900

Severity Override Guidance

Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment variable. Refer to APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA.

As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), review the authentication entries in pg_hba.conf:

$ sudo su - postgres
$ cat ${PGDATA?}/pg_hba.conf

If any entries use the auth_method (last column in records) "password" or "md5", this is a finding.

Check Content Reference

Target Key

5598