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V-204438

CAT I (High)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer with a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes.

Rule ID

SV-204438r958472_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R15

CCIs

CCI-000213

Discussion

If the system does not require valid authentication before it boots into single-user or maintenance mode, anyone who invokes single-user or maintenance mode is granted privileged access to all files on the system. GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for RHEL 7 and is designed to require a password to boot into single-user mode or make modifications to the boot menu.

Check Content

For systems that use UEFI, this is Not Applicable.

For systems that are running a version of RHEL prior to 7.2, this is Not Applicable.

Check to see if an encrypted grub superusers password is set. On systems that use a BIOS, use the following command:

$ sudo grep -iw grub2_password /boot/grub2/user.cfg
GRUB2_PASSWORD=grub.pbkdf2.sha512.[password_hash]

If the grub superusers password does not begin with "grub.pbkdf2.sha512", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the system to encrypt the boot password for the grub superusers account with the grub2-setpassword command, which creates/overwrites the /boot/grub2/user.cfg file.

Generate an encrypted grub2 password for the grub superusers account with the following command:
  
$ sudo grub2-setpassword
Enter password:
Confirm password: