SV-204462r991589: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to the system. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to the system.

Description

Discussion Text

If an account other than root also has a User Identifier (UID) of "0", it has root authority, giving that account unrestricted access to the entire operating system. Multiple accounts with a UID of "0" afford an 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-000366SV-86629V-72005

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 2899

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Check the system for duplicate UID "0" assignments with the following command:

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

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

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.stig.rhel7:def:457
# The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to the system.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# tests that there are no accounts with UID 0 except root in the /etc/passwd file
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ! ( grep -Pq '^(?!root:)[^:]*:[^:]*:0' '/etc/passwd' &>/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.stig.rhel7:def:457

if ! grep -qE '^(?!root:)[^:]*:[^:]*:0' /etc/passwd; then
  echo "PASS"
  exit 0
else
  echo "FAIL"
  exit 1
fi

Remediation

Change the UID of any account on the system, other than root, that 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.