RHEL-09-215070 - A graphical display manager must not be installed on RHEL 9 unless approved.

Information

Unnecessary service packages must not be installed to decrease the attack surface of the system. Graphical display managers have a long history of security vulnerabilities and must not be used, unless approved and documented.

Solution

Document the requirement for a graphical user interface with the ISSO or remove all xorg packages with the following command:

Warning: If you are accessing the system through the graphical user interface, change to the multi-user.target with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target

Warning: Removal of the graphical user interface will immediately render it useless. The following commands must not be run from a virtual terminal emulator in the graphical interface.

$ sudo dnf remove 'xorg*'
$ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_9_V2R2_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Rule-ID|SV-257837r991589_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-215070, Vuln-ID|V-257837

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 10790e83b5d6d9edc79b3c666f0cbb412066224aba2928921dcdd4aa42fab032