In regulated environments, some machines must adhere to strict cryptography requirements designed to protect systems from being cracked, altered, or tampered with. Using cryptographic modules that are FIPS certified or compliant ensure a systems’ encryption solutions adequately protect its digital assets. FIPS validated operating systems are a prerequisite for government agencies, their partners, and those wanting to conduct business with the federal government.
There are multiple ways to enable, manage, and monitor FIPS on Ubuntu.
Network access control influences the mode for FIPS enablement
FIPS validated operating systems are deployed across two network types:
- Connected: machines have the ability to contact subdomains on canonical.com to stay current with an evolving security baseline
- Airgapped: machines can not reach beyond their local network
You may have some machines which require strict adherence to FIPS validation. There may be other machines that require FIPS compliance and critical vulnerability updates right away, before a formal FIPS certification process can be completed. In that case, network accessibility and the nature of the workload will influence which flavour of FIPS is required.
FIPS in connected environments
Ubuntu Advantage entitlements, associated with your free or paid subscription, can be managed in the Ubuntu Advantage dashboard at ubuntu.com/advantage. FIPS configurations, or access to FIPS Updates, can be associated with a unique token within the Ubuntu Advantage dashboard. Running a single ua attach command with the appropriate token will enable the entitlements according to your selections on the Ubuntu Advantage dashboard, on the target Ubuntu machine. The free tier grants you access to one token, which serves as a default configuration profile for a set of machines. If you do not wish to automatically enable any entitlements, or if you are using Ubuntu Pro and your UA Client is already attached, this tutorial provides a walkthrough of using the UA Client to enable FIPS.
Monitoring FIPS configurations with Landscape
Landscape is Canonical’s monitoring and management tool for Ubuntu. Organisations incorporate Landscape into their compliance strategies, because of its highly configurable auditing and logging capabilities. In less than 15 minutes, you can configure Landscape to audit UA Client FIPS configurations in your entire Ubuntu estate.
FIPS in air-gapped environments
Massimiliano Gori, Cybersecurity Compliance Product Manager at Canonical, will discuss how to enable FIPS on Ubuntu in air-gapped environments in a live webinar which you can attend from the comfort of your own desk. Please mark February 23th at 9 AM PST, 12:00 PM EST on your calendar. We look forward to answering all of your questions about FIPS and Landscape.
