SV-37347r2: The root account must be the only account having a UID of 0. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Loading benchmark…

Assessment Title

Rule Text

The root account must be the only account having a UID of 0.

Description

Discussion Text

If an account has a UID of 0, it has root authority. Multiple accounts with a UID of 0 afford more opportunity for potential intruders to guess a password for a privileged account.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000366

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

References

DPMS Target Red Hat 5 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat 5 2154

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:70
if [ ! -f "/etc/passwd" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ "$(awk -F':' '$3 == 0 {print $1}' /etc/passwd | grep -v root | wc -l)" -eq 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi

Remediation

Remove or change the UID of accounts other than root that have UID 0.