STIGUI
V-271803CAT II — Medium severitySV-271803r1092121_rule

OL 9 /etc/gshadow- file must be owned by root.

Rule version OL09-00-002541 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-21

Discussion

The "/etc/gshadow-" file is a backup of "/etc/gshadow", and as such, contains group password hashes. Protection of this file is critical for system security.

Check

Verify that OL 9 configures ownership of the "/etc/gshadow-" file with the following command:

$ stat -c "%U %n" /etc/gshadow- root /etc/gshadow-

If "/etc/gshadow-" file does not have an owner of "root", this is a finding.

Fix

Change the owner of the file /etc/gshadow- to root by running the following command:

$ sudo chown root /etc/gshadow-

Identifiers

Group ID
V-271803
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-271803r1092121_rule
Check ID
C-75853r1092119_chk
Fix ID
F-75760r1092120_fix