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

Information

The Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer booted with United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must have a unique name for the grub superusers account when booting into single-user mode and maintenance.

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/efi/EFI/redhat/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: 723883f9b2569448346ed8f18fcab934a5ed471928e399d94e85c643753536e7