Title

RHEL 9 SSH server configuration file must be owned by root. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Service configuration files enable or disable features of their respective services, which if configured incorrectly, can lead to insecure and vulnerable configurations. Therefore, service configuration files must be owned by the correct group to prevent unauthorized changes.

Check Content

Verify the ownership of the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file with the following command: $ sudo find /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d -exec stat -c "%U %n" {} \; root /etc/ssh/sshd_config root /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d root /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/50-cloud-init.conf root /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/50-redhat.conf If the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file or "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d" or any files in the sshd_config.d directory do not have an owner of "root", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file to be owned by root with the following command: $ sudo chown root /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-257998r1045059_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-257998

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.