1.4.5 Ensure version 7.2 or newer booted with a BIOS have a unique name for the grub superusers account

Information

The Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer booted with a BIOS must have a unique name for the grub superusers account when booting into single-user and maintenance modes.

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.

Solution

Configure the system to have a unique name for the grub superusers account.

Edit the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file and add or modify the following lines in the "### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/01_users ###" section:

set superusers="[someuniquestringhere]"
export superusers
password_pbkdf2 [someuniquestringhere] ${GRUB2_PASSWORD}

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/8415

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|SI-7(9)

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 235a40eb377a79072cdaf238780fa5366ef906d62c799efd663343ce582ee205