STIGUI
V-257881CAT II — Medium severitySV-257881r1268251_rule

RHEL 9 must prevent special devices on non-root local partitions.

Rule version RHEL-09-231200 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The "nodev" mount option causes the system to not interpret character or block special devices. Executing character or block special devices from untrusted file systems increases the opportunity for nonprivileged users to attain unauthorized administrative access.

The only legitimate location for device files is the "/dev" directory located on the root partition, with the exception of chroot jails if implemented.

Check

Verify all nonroot local partitions are mounted with the "nodev" option with the following command:

$ sudo mount | grep '^/dev\S* on /\S' | grep --invert-match 'nodev'

If any output is produced, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the "/etc/fstab" to use the "nodev" option on all non-root local partitions.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257881
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257881r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61622r1184298_chk
Fix ID
F-61546r925629_fix