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V-269291

CAT II (Medium)

The root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to an AlmaLinux OS 9 system.

Rule ID

SV-269291r1050173_rule

STIG

Cloud Linux AlmaLinux OS 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R6

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

An account has root authority if it has a user identifier (UID) of "0". Multiple accounts with a UID of "0" afford more opportunity for potential intruders to guess a password for a privileged account. Proper configuration of sudo is recommended to afford multiple system administrators access to root privileges in an accountable manner.

Check Content

Verify that only the "root" account has a UID "0" assignment with the following command:

$ awk -F: '$3 == 0 {print $1}' /etc/passwd

root

If any accounts other than "root" have a UID of "0", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Change the UID of any account on the system, other than root which has a UID of "0". 

If the account is associated with system commands or applications, the UID should be changed to one greater than "0" but less than "1000". Otherwise, assign a UID of greater than "1000" that has not already been assigned.