A graphical display manager must not be installed on RHEL 9 unless approved.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-257837 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | RHEL-09-215070 | SV-257837r1044910_rule | 2026-02-05 | 2 |
Description
Unnecessary service packages must not be installed to decrease the attack surface of the system. Graphical display managers have a long history of security vulnerabilities and must not be used, unless approved and documented.
ℹ️ Check
Verify that a graphical user interface is not installed with the following command:
$ dnf list --installed "xorg-x11-server-common"
Error: No matching Packages to list
If the "xorg-x11-server-common" package is installed, and the use of a graphical user interface has not been documented with the information system security officer (ISSO) as an operational requirement, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Document the requirement for a graphical user interface with the ISSO or remove all xorg packages with the following command:
Warning: If you are accessing the system through the graphical user interface, change to the multi-user.target with the following command:
$ sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target
Warning: Removal of the graphical user interface will immediately render it useless. The following commands must not be run from a virtual terminal emulator in the graphical interface.
$ sudo dnf remove "xorg*"
$ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target