cis-cassandra5-5-2

name	cis-cassandra5-5.2
description	Client Encryption
category	cis-cassandra
version	1.1.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["cis","cassandra","linux","database","nosql","encryption","tls"]
cis_id	5.2
cis_benchmark	CIS Apache Cassandra 5.0 Benchmark v1.1.0
tech_stack	["linux","cassandra"]
cwe_ids	[]
chains_with	[]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{}

Client Encryption (Automated)

Profile Applicability

• Level 1 - Cassandra on Linux

Description

Cassandra offers the option to encrypt data in transit between the client and nodes on the cluster. By default client encryption is turned off.

Rationale

Data in transit between the client and node on the cluster should be encrypted to avoid network snooping, whether legitimate or not.

Impact

None

Audit Procedure

The Cassandra configuration files can be found in the conf directory of tarballs. For packages, the configuration files will be located in /etc/cassandra.

Open up the cassandra.yaml file, look for client_encryption_options section.

Look for enabled: and optional:

enabled: true

optional: false

If neither is true, then all client connections are unencrypted which makes this a finding.

If enabled is true and optional is false, then all client connections must be encrypted which makes this not a finding.

If enabled is false and optional is true, then enabled wins and all client connections are unencrypted which makes this a finding.

If both are set to true, then both unencrypted and encrypted connections are allowed on the same port which makes this not a finding.

You can also excuse this command:

cat cassandra.yaml | grep -A7 -in "client_encryption_options:"

or

cat cassandra.yaml | grep -A2 -in "client_encryption_options:"

If enabled is set to true, then success. Anything else is a finding.

Remediation

The client encryption should be implemented before anyone accesses the Cassandra server.

To enable the client encryption mechanism:

1. Stop the Cassandra database.
2. If not done so already, build out your keystore and truststore.
3. Modify cassandra.yaml file to modify/add entry for client_encryption_options section:
   • Set enabled to