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5.6 Ensure the "root" Account Is Disabled

Information

The root account is a superuser account that has access privileges to perform any actions and read/write to any file on the computer. With some versions of Linux, the system administrator may commonly use the root account to perform administrative functions.

Previous versions of the benchmark included a graphical check for the audit and remediation as well as a different Terminal command for the remediation. After extensive testing, it was discovered that if root was enabled it could be granted a secure token which was not removed with the previous remediation. To rectify this issue, the audit was updated to verify if root has a secure token even if the root account is not enabled. The remediation was also updated to remove root 's secure token as well as an updated command to disable the root user.

Enabling and using the root account puts the system at risk since any successful exploit or mistake while the root account is in use could have unlimited access privileges within the system. Using the sudo command allows users to perform functions as a root user while limiting and password protecting the access privileges. By default the root account is not enabled on a macOS computer. An administrator can escalate privileges using the sudo command (use -s or -i to get a root shell).

Solution

Terminal Method:

Run the following commands to disable the root user:

% /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/fdesetup remove -user root 2>/dev/null

% /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/dscl /Local/Default delete /Users/root AuthenticationAuthority

Impact:

Some legacy POSIX software might expect an available root account.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/24639

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-6(2), 800-53|AC-6(5), CSCv7|4.3

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 62926ce8a83fbff1594de3c56b7dd536f0dfcbf73c36ba8d3f16e70d0fc72024