STIGUI
V-260540CAT II — Medium severitySV-260540r986276_rule

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS must disable automatic mounting of Universal Serial Bus (USB) mass storage driver.

Rule version UBTU-22-291010 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-09

Discussion

Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity.

Peripherals include, but are not limited to, such devices as flash drives, external storage, and printers.

Check

Verify Ubuntu 22.04 LTS disables ability to load the USB storage kernel module by using the following command:

     $ grep usb-storage /etc/modprobe.d/* | grep "/bin/false" 
     /etc/modprobe.d/stig.conf:install usb-storage /bin/false 

If the command does not return any output, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

Verify Ubuntu 22.04 LTS disables the ability to use USB mass storage device.

     $ grep usb-storage /etc/modprobe.d/* | grep -i "blacklist" 
     /etc/modprobe.d/stig.conf:blacklist usb-storage 

If the command does not return any output, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to disable using the USB storage kernel module.

Create and/or append a custom file under "/etc/modprobe.d/" to contain the following:

     $ sudo su -c "echo install usb-storage /bin/false >> /etc/modprobe.d/stig.conf" 

Configure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to disable the ability to use USB mass storage devices.

     $ sudo su -c "echo blacklist usb-storage >> /etc/modprobe.d/stig.conf"

Identifiers

Group ID
V-260540
Group title
SRG-OS-000378-GPOS-00163
Rule ID
SV-260540r986276_rule
Check ID
C-64269r953431_chk
Fix ID
F-64177r953432_fix