SV-230534r1017296: The root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to the RHEL 8 system. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to the RHEL 8 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-000366

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 2921

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.rhel8os:def:230534
# The root account must be the only account having unrestricted access to the RHEL 8 system.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Only the root account has a UID of zero.
# password_object (password_test)
test_1() {
  [ "$(getent passwd 'root' | cut -d: -f3)" -ne 0 ]
}

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 Definition: oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel8os:def:230534

if [ ! -s /etc/passwd ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi

for user in $(cat /etc/passwd); do
    IFS=':' read -r -a user_data <<< "$user"
    username=${user_data[0]}
    uid=${user_data[2]}
    if [ "$uid" -eq 0 ] && [ "$username" != "root" ]; then
        echo "FAIL"; exit 1
    elif [ "$uid" -eq 0 ] && [ "$username" == "root" ]; then
        :
    elif [ "$uid" -ne 0 ] && [ "$uid" -lt 1000 ]; then
        :
    else
        if [ "$uid" -ge 1000 ]; then
            :
        else
            echo "FAIL"; exit 1
        fi
    fi
done

echo "PASS"; exit 0

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.