SV-258106r1102061: RHEL 9 must require users to provide a password for privilege escalation. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

RHEL 9 must require users to provide a password for privilege escalation.

Description

Discussion Text

Without reauthentication, users may access resources or perform tasks for which they do not have authorization. When operating systems provide the capability to escalate a functional capability, it is critical that the user reauthenticate. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00156, SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00157, SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00158

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-004895Not mappedCCI-002038

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 5551

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Verify that "/etc/sudoers" has no occurrences of "NOPASSWD" with the following command:

$ sudo grep -iR 'NOPASSWD' /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.d/

If any occurrences of "NOPASSWD" are returned from the command and have not been documented with the information system security officer (ISSO) as an organizationally defined administrative group using multifactor authentication (MFA), 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.rhel9os:def:258106
# RHEL 9 must require users to provide a password for privilege escalation.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# 'NOPASSWD' does not exist in /etc/sudoers
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ! ( grep -Pq '^(?!#).*\s+NOPASSWD.*$' '/etc/sudoers' &>/dev/null )
}
# 'NOPASSWD' does not exist in /etc/sudoers.d
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_2() {
  ! ( grep -rqP --include='*' '^(?!#).*\s+NOPASSWD.*$' '/etc/sudoers.d' &>/dev/null )
}

if ( test_1 && test_2 ); 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:258106
if [ ! -f /etc/sudoers ] && [ ! -d /etc/sudoers.d ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
grep -q '^\\s*NOPASSWD' /etc/sudoers && { echo "FAIL"; exit 1; }
for file in /etc/sudoers.d/*; do if [ -f "$file" ]; then grep -q '^\\s*NOPASSWD' "$file" && { echo "FAIL"; exit 1; }; fi; done
echo "PASS"; exit 0

Remediation

Configure RHEL 9 to not allow users to execute privileged actions without authenticating with a password.

Remove any occurrence of "NOPASSWD" found in "/etc/sudoers" file or files in the "/etc/sudoers.d" directory.

$ sudo find /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.d -type f -exec sed -i '/NOPASSWD/ s/^/# /g' {} \;