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.

Rationale:

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/files/3636

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-3, CCI|CCI-000213, Rule-ID|SV-244557r744063_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-07-010483

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 1e3964c440624b07b353f9ff61988dc69b3e9673b8c24f9e760e0924614113bc