The x86 Ctrl-Alt-Delete key sequence must be disabled on RHEL 8.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-230529	RHEL-08-040170	SV-230529r833338_rule		High

Description
A locally logged-on user, who presses Ctrl-Alt-Delete when at the console, can reboot the system. If accidentally pressed, as could happen in the case of a mixed OS environment, this can create the risk of short-term loss of availability of systems due to unintentional reboot. In a graphical user environment, risk of unintentional reboot from the Ctrl-Alt-Delete sequence is reduced because the user will be prompted before any action is taken.

Description

A locally logged-on user, who presses Ctrl-Alt-Delete when at the console, can reboot the system. If accidentally pressed, as could happen in the case of a mixed OS environment, this can create the risk of short-term loss of availability of systems due to unintentional reboot. In a graphical user environment, risk of unintentional reboot from the Ctrl-Alt-Delete sequence is reduced because the user will be prompted before any action is taken.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-12-01

Details

Check Text ( C-33198r568333_chk )
Verify RHEL 8 is not configured to reboot the system when Ctrl-Alt-Delete is pressed with the following command: $ sudo systemctl status ctrl-alt-del.target ctrl-alt-del.target Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit ctrl-alt-del.target is masked.) Active: inactive (dead) If the "ctrl-alt-del.target" is loaded and not masked, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-33173r833337_fix)
Configure the system to disable the Ctrl-Alt-Delete sequence for the command line with the following commands: $ sudo systemctl disable ctrl-alt-del.target $ sudo systemctl mask ctrl-alt-del.target Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target -> /dev/null Reload the daemon for this change to take effect. $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload