STIGUI
V-271809CAT II — Medium severitySV-271809r1092139_rule

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

Rule version OL09-00-002547 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-21

Discussion

The "/etc/passwd-" file is a backup file of "/etc/passwd", and as such, contains information about the users that are configured on the system. Protection of this file is critical for system security.

Check

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

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

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

Fix

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

$ sudo chown root /etc/passwd-

Identifiers

Group ID
V-271809
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-271809r1092139_rule
Check ID
C-75859r1092137_chk
Fix ID
F-75766r1092138_fix