STIGUI
V-271475CAT II — Medium severitySV-271475r1091137_rule

OL 9 must use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation when using sudo.

Rule version OL09-00-000231 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-21

Discussion

If the rootpw, targetpw, or runaspw flags are defined and not disabled, by default the operating system will prompt the invoking user for the "root" user password.

Check

Verify that OL 9 is configured to enforce the sudoers security policy to use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation with the following command:

$ sudo egrep -i '(!rootpw|!targetpw|!runaspw)' /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.d/* | grep -v '#' /etc/sudoers:Defaults !targetpw /etc/sudoers:Defaults !rootpw /etc/sudoers:Defaults !runaspw

If no results are returned, this is a finding.

If results are returned from more than one file location, this is a finding.

If "Defaults !targetpw" is not defined, this is a finding.

If "Defaults !rootpw" is not defined, this is a finding.

If "Defaults !runaspw" is not defined, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure OL 9 to use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation when using sudo.

Define the following in the Defaults section of the /etc/sudoers file or a single configuration file in the /etc/sudoers.d/ directory:

Defaults !targetpw Defaults !rootpw Defaults !runaspw

Identifiers

Group ID
V-271475
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-271475r1091137_rule
Check ID
C-75525r1091135_chk
Fix ID
F-75432r1091136_fix