OL 9 system accounts must not have an interactive login shell.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-271845 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | OL09-00-003051 | SV-271845r1092247_rule | 2026-02-17 | 1 |
Description
Ensuring shells are not given to system accounts upon login makes it more difficult for attackers to make use of system accounts.
ℹ️ Check
Verify that OL 9 configures system accounts to not have an interactive login shell with the following command:
$ awk -F: '($3<1000){print $1 ":" $3 ":" $7}' /etc/passwd
root:0:/bin/bash
bin:1:/sbin/nologin
daemon:2:/sbin/nologin
adm:3:/sbin/nologin
lp:4:/sbin/nologin
Identify the system accounts from this listing that do not have a nologin shell.
If any system account (other than the root account) has a login shell and it is not documented with the information system security officer (ISSO), this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure OL 9 so that all noninteractive accounts on the system do not have an interactive shell assigned to them.
If the system account needs a shell assigned for mission operations, document the need with the ISSO.
Run the following command to disable the interactive shell for a specific noninteractive user account:
Replace <user> with the user that has a login shell.
$ sudo usermod --shell /sbin/nologin <user>
Do not perform the steps in this section on the root account. Doing so will cause the system to become inaccessible.