STIGUI
V-257899CAT II — Medium severitySV-257899r1268251_rule

RHEL 9 /etc/group file must be group-owned by root.

Rule version RHEL-09-232095 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The "/etc/group" file contains information regarding groups that are configured on the system. Protection of this file is important for system security.

Check

Verify the group ownership of the "/etc/group" file with the following command:

$ sudo stat -c "%G %n" /etc/group 

root /etc/group

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

Fix

Change the group of the file /etc/group to root by running the following command:

$ sudo chgrp root /etc/group

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257899
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257899r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61640r925682_chk
Fix ID
F-61564r925683_fix