1.4.3 Ensure the operating system requires authentication for rescue mode

Information

Rescue mode provides the ability to boot a small Linux environment entirely from CD-ROM, or some other boot method, instead of the system's hard drive.

As the name implies, rescue mode is provided to rescue you from something. During normal operation, your Linux system uses files located on your system's hard drive to do everything - run programs, store your files, and more.However, there may be times when you are unable to get Linux running completely enough to access files on your system's hard drive. Using rescue mode, you can access the files stored on your system's hard drive, even if you cannot actually run Linux from that hard drive.

If the system does not require valid root authentication before it boots into emergency or rescue mode, anyone who invokes emergency or rescue mode is granted privileged access to all files on the system.

Solution

Update /usr/lib/systemd/system/rescue.service and add or modify the following line:

ExecStart=-/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sulogin-shell rescue

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19886

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4

Plugin: Unix

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