The debug-shell systemd service must be disabled on RHEL 8.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-230532	RHEL-08-040180	SV-230532r627750_rule		Medium

Description
The debug-shell requires no authentication and provides root privileges to anyone who has physical access to the machine. While this feature is disabled by default, masking it adds an additional layer of assurance that it will not be enabled via a dependency in systemd. This also prevents attackers with physical access from trivially bypassing security on the machine through valid troubleshooting configurations and gaining root access when the system is rebooted.

Description

The debug-shell requires no authentication and provides root privileges to anyone who has physical access to the machine. While this feature is disabled by default, masking it adds an additional layer of assurance that it will not be enabled via a dependency in systemd. This also prevents attackers with physical access from trivially bypassing security on the machine through valid troubleshooting configurations and gaining root access when the system is rebooted.

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

Details

Check Text ( C-33201r568342_chk )
Verify RHEL 8 is configured to mask the debug-shell systemd service with the following command: $ sudo systemctl status debug-shell.service debug-shell.service Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit debug-shell.service is masked.) Active: inactive (dead) If the "debug-shell.service" is loaded and not masked, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-33176r619892_fix)
Configure the system to mask the debug-shell systemd service with the following command: $ sudo systemctl mask debug-shell.service Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/debug-shell.service -> /dev/null Reload the daemon to take effect. $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload