STIGUI
V-257901CAT II — Medium severitySV-257901r1268251_rule

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

Rule version RHEL-09-232105 · 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 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-257901
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257901r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61642r925688_chk
Fix ID
F-61566r925689_fix