SV-37933r1: The system boot loader must require authentication. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The system boot loader must require authentication.

Description

Discussion Text

If the system's boot loader does not require authentication, users with console access to the system may be able to alter the system boot configuration or boot the system into single user or maintenance mode, which could result in Denial of Service or unauthorized privileged access to the system.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000213CCE-3818-2

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

IA Controls

IAIA-1, IAIA-2

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.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:444
# The system boot loader must require authentication.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Conditions are satisfied
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  grep -Pq '^[ ]*password[ 	
	]+--md5[ 	
	]+[^ 
]*' '/boot/grub/grub.conf' &>/dev/null
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

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:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:444
if [ ! -f "/boot/grub/grub.conf" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if grep -q "^[ ]*password[ \t\n\t]+--md5[ \t\n\t]+[^ \n]*" "/boot/grub/grub.conf"; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi

Remediation

The GRUB console boot loader can be configured to use an MD5 encrypted password by adding password --md5 password-hash to the "/boot/grub/grub.conf" file. Use "/sbin/grub-md5-crypt" to generate MD5 passwords from the command line.