STIGUI
V-281210CAT II — Medium severitySV-281210r1166582_rule

RHEL 10 must use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation when using "sudo".

Rule version RHEL-10-600550 · STIG v1 · 2026-09-17

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 RHEL 10 sudoers security policy is configured to use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation with the following command:

$ sudo grep -irE '(!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 RHEL 10 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-281210
Group title
SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00156
Rule ID
SV-281210r1166582_rule
Check ID
C-85771r1166580_chk
Fix ID
F-85676r1166581_fix