STIGUI
V-257902CAT II — Medium severitySV-257902r1268251_rule

RHEL 9 /etc/gshadow file must be owned by root.

Rule version RHEL-09-232110 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The "/etc/gshadow" file contains group password hashes. Protection of this file is critical for system security.

Check

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

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

root /etc/gshadow

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

Fix

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

$ sudo chown root /etc/gshadow

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257902
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257902r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61643r925691_chk
Fix ID
F-61567r925692_fix