Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer with a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-204438	RHEL-07-010482	SV-204438r744095_rule		High

Description
If the system does not require valid authentication before it boots into single-user or maintenance mode, anyone who invokes single-user or maintenance mode is granted privileged access to all files on the system. GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for RHEL 7 and is designed to require a password to boot into single-user mode or make modifications to the boot menu.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-06-02

Details

Check Text ( C-4562r744093_chk )
For systems that use UEFI, this is Not Applicable. For systems that are running a version of RHEL prior to 7.2, this is Not Applicable. Check to see if an encrypted grub superusers password is set. On systems that use a BIOS, use the following command: $ sudo grep -iw grub2_password /boot/grub2/user.cfg GRUB2_PASSWORD=grub.pbkdf2.sha512.[password_hash] If the grub superusers password does not begin with "grub.pbkdf2.sha512", this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-4562r744093_chk )

For systems that use UEFI, this is Not Applicable.

For systems that are running a version of RHEL prior to 7.2, this is Not Applicable.

Check to see if an encrypted grub superusers password is set. On systems that use a BIOS, use the following command:

$ sudo grep -iw grub2_password /boot/grub2/user.cfg
GRUB2_PASSWORD=grub.pbkdf2.sha512.[password_hash]

If the grub superusers password does not begin with "grub.pbkdf2.sha512", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-4562r744094_fix)
Configure the system to encrypt the boot password for the grub superusers account with the grub2-setpassword command, which creates/overwrites the /boot/grub2/user.cfg file. Generate an encrypted grub2 password for the grub superusers account with the following command: $ sudo grub2-setpassword Enter password: Confirm password: