SV-257837r1044910: A graphical display manager must not be installed on RHEL 9 unless approved. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

A graphical display manager must not be installed on RHEL 9 unless approved.

Description

Discussion Text

Unnecessary service packages must not be installed to decrease the attack surface of the system. Graphical display managers have a long history of security vulnerabilities and must not be used, unless approved and documented.

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 9 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 5551

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.rhel9os:def:257837
# A graphical display manager must not be installed on RHEL 9 unless approved.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# The graphical display manager is absent.
# rpminfo_object (rpminfo_test)
test_1() {
  ! ( rpm -q --quiet 'xorg-x11-server-common' &>/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 Definition: oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel9os:def:257837

if ! command -v rpm &> /dev/null; then
  echo "FAIL"
  exit 1
fi

if rpm -q xorg-x11-server-common &> /dev/null; then
  echo "FAIL"
  exit 1
fi

echo "PASS"
exit 0

Remediation

Document the requirement for a graphical user interface with the ISSO or remove all xorg packages with the following command:

Warning: If you are accessing the system through the graphical user interface, change to the multi-user.target with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target

Warning: Removal of the graphical user interface will immediately render it useless. The following commands must not be run from a virtual terminal emulator in the graphical interface.

$ sudo dnf remove "xorg*"
$ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target