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V-257911

CAT II (Medium)

RHEL 9 /etc/shadow file must be group-owned by root.

Rule ID

SV-257911r991589_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R8

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

The "/etc/shadow" file stores password hashes. Protection of this file is critical for system security.

Check Content

Verify the group ownership of the "/etc/shadow" file with the following command:

$ sudo stat -c "%G %n" /etc/shadow 

root /etc/shadow

If "/etc/shadow" file does not have a group owner of "root", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Change the group of the file /etc/shadow to root by running the following command:

$ sudo chgrp root /etc/shadow