STIGUI
V-257900CAT II — Medium severitySV-257900r1268251_rule

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

Rule version RHEL-09-232100 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The "/etc/group-" file is a backup file of "/etc/group", and as such, contains information regarding groups that are configured on the system. Protection of this file is important for system security.

Check

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

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

root /etc/group-

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

Fix

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

$ sudo chown root /etc/group-

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257900
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257900r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61641r925685_chk
Fix ID
F-61565r925686_fix