security_hardening

Maintains ansible/roles/security_hardening/. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the shared conventions (role layout, audit vs. remediate via --check --diff, safety rules, branch + PR contribution workflow).

ansible/roles/security_hardening/README.md documents this role's full configuration surface (every defaults/main.yml variable, with its original inline comments, rendered as a single reference). Read it before proposing or explaining how to configure this role — it reflects the role's actual current defaults even if a variable summary elsewhere in this file has drifted out of sync with the role.

Policy & workload awareness

docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md, docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY and docs/WORKLOAD.md capture org-wide policy items and the workloads this SOE actually hosts — either can gain a new or changed item that this role should reflect. Before auditing, remediating, or proposing a change, check whether either doc has changed more recently than this role's own code:

git log -1 --format='%cI %h %s' -- docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY.md docs/WORKLOAD.md
git log -1 --format='%cI %h %s' -- ansible/roles/security_hardening/

If the docs' latest commit is newer than the role's, this role hasn't been re-assessed against current policy/workload — read both files and judge whether anything added or changed since is relevant to this domain:

• Relevant — propose a concrete change on a branch (soe/security_hardening/policy-<short-desc> or soe/security_hardening/workload-<short-desc>), same branch + PR workflow as any other role change (see "What to do" above and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow"). Don't wait to be asked.
• Not relevant — say so explicitly (e.g. "checked against docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md, docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY and docs/WORKLOAD.md as of <date>, nothing affecting this domain") rather than silently skipping the check.

This check is informational, not a gate — it runs alongside a normal audit/remediate, never blocks one; surface the staleness note alongside the normal output.

What the role actually does

Encoded in ansible/roles/security_hardening/defaults/main.yml:

• secure_boot_verify/fips_mode_verify (both default false) are audit-only checks — when enabled, the role fails the run if Secure Boot or FIPS isn't actually enabled on the host (via mokutil --sb-state and /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled/CPU AES flag respectively); it does not attempt to turn either on.
• kernel_lockdown (default disabled; RHEL 9+ only) — the role's own note: enabling lockdown (integrity/confidentiality) prevents using kdump.
• selinux (default enforcing) and crypto_policy (default DEFAULT) are applied directly.
• scp_protocol_enable (default true) toggles the (legacy) scp protocol, distinct from the scp(1) command itself per the role's own default comment.

This role is sourced from the myllynen/rhel-ansible-roles import (see git log -- ansible/roles/security_hardening) rather than hand-authored for this repo. Unlike the original reference domains (e.g. timesync, usbguard_setup), it applies state declaratively via standard Ansible modules and does not add its own assert-based drift checks on top — an audit here is exactly what --check --diff reports from the underlying modules, nothing more.

What to do

Audit (read-only, safe to run any time):

ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags security_hardening --check --diff

Summarize the diff output and any failed tasks in plain language.

Remediate (modifies the system — only after the user explicitly asks): first summarize what will change from the --check --diff output, then run the same command without --check:

ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags security_hardening

Propose a change to the role itself: never edit and commit directly. On a branch named soe/security_hardening/<short-desc>, edit ansible/roles/security_hardening/, validate locally (--syntax-check, ansible-lint roles/security_hardening/, and --check --diff against a real/test host if available), then push and open a PR titled [security_hardening] <what changed> with the --check --diff output in the body. Then stop — a human reviews and merges; see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow".

Notes

• fips_mode_verify: true failing does not mean this role can fix it — FIPS mode is generally an install-time decision on RHEL; treat a failure here as a finding to report, not something to auto-remediate. Changing kernel_lockdown or crypto_policy can affect boot behavior and what crypto/kdump features work — treat proposed changes here with the same care as boot_parameters.

Wiring into the SOE

This role is in configure_rhel_domains's default value in ansible/configure_rhel.yml (see .claude/skills/configure_rhel/SKILL.md) and has a row in .claude/skills/soe/SKILL.md's domain table, so it runs as part of both ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags security_hardening ... and a full, untagged ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml run. This repo no longer uses ansible/site.yml as the baseline entrypoint — see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.